Auckland, Day 2: a little R&R&R.

Monday was a holiday and we worried that we wouldn't find breakfast, but Jill came to the rescue through a supermarket discovery during an early morning walk.

Mango yogurt... YUM

After breakfast Kim drove us 2.5 hours south to rappel, raft and rock climb in the Waitomo Caves. The countryside along the drive was really lovely - rolling green hills, lots of farmhouses, some mountains and lots of cows. Later I would learn that one of their top three industries is dairy, so the cows made sense, but at the time I was just wondering where all the sheep were!

Before checking in for the cave tour we stopped for lunch at The Big Apple (where I vowed off New Zealand "bacon" for a little while, and also vowed to eat a salad at some point on this trip). Energized, we headed into our 5-hour adventure which consisted of:

rappelling 129 meters down a cave shaft

walking up the river a bit to see a constellation of glowworms

tubing down the river a bit, including
a random jump off the cave wall at one
point (they do love their action down here)

crawling through crevices for photo opportunities

stopping to pet a friendly little eel who swam
right up to us and moved from person to person

rock climbing back up the 129 meter shaft

The cave was beautiful, the glowworms were really amazing and the rappelling/rock climbing were an adrenaline rush. It was definitely not like the eco-tours I'm used to, though. The tour owner opts to leave the cave in its natural condition instead of installing ramps and ropes and other accessibility features, which is great, and the cave itself doesn't seem too prone to damage from human touch like some of the other delicate caves I've visited.

But the guide poured the leftover juice directly into the river before packing up, and I actually winced. It didn't pain me as much after he explained that the water contained farm run-off and was probably all kinds of contaminated (information which would've been helpful to know BEFORE we got wet, actually), but a few minutes later when I saw the little eel I couldn't help but wonder how healthy it and the rest of the river inhabitants were. I just kept picturing Blinky.

Then again, maybe that little eel really likes mango orange juice. Stranger things have happened.

I got to drive back to Auckland. Driving on the other side of the road was weird but not too bad. The whole time I thought about how I needed a little more practice with my travel zen. There wasn't a moment of silence on the cave tour - the guide and other guests chattered the whole time, whereas I just wanted 5 minutes of quiet while I lay on the rocks in that underground cavern, staring up at the glowworms. I ended up lagging behind the group just to have a few moments to myself in that gorgeous cave. Hopefully the people on the overnight trek next week will appreciate silence, for a little while anyway.

Dinner at the apartment was delivery Indian food (Little India this time), to supplement the leftovers from the night before - good call, great food to get us ready for Part 2 - Wellington!