September 13

Went to town of Waitomo today to see some caves. UNDERGROUND CAVES!.... underground caves with GLOWWORMS... (much cooler sounding then they actually are)

So planned out 2 caves for today, first glowworms and then Ruakuri cave. Glowworms, commentator guy was amazing. He was like one of the guys on an animal planet special talking about something boring but the inflections in his voice make it amazing! So walk walk walk abit see a big cathedral cave where orchestras come to record. Many stalagtites all look like penises and I giggle profusely. We hop into a big canoe and round the corner. Looks like a bunch of LEDs to me on the ceiling but he assures me they are glowworms. I ask to take a picture he says no. So I quietly take a video instead... unfortunatly with no REAL light other then bioluminesence aka LEDs there is nothing on the video but sound of a canoe. So its pitch black and a bunch of LEDS and a canoe... waste of money... NEXT CAVE

Ruakuri Cave now this one seems way cooler. Named for the wild dogs that used to live in it which were later killed so there could be CAVE TOURS! On the way down a giant spiral staircase the tour guide asks where im from, my name, my zip code, my social security number, if im susceptible to any diseases... i say im "Mike from NY" She then asks why Im in NZ. I say "Studying ecotourism" She says she did stuff with eco-tourism and will give me her email address... awesome!

Anyways back to the cave. Was very neat, impossibile to get good pictures so I eventually gave up. Lots of neat features and bottomless pits. Would be a perfect place if I finally get my Evil Genius degree for a secret hideout. Got a picture of me and ecotourist tour guide normal pose then crazy pose. She and I both threw up the rock fists at the same time great minds do think alike! Ecotourism, ridiculous humor/sarcasm, and rockfisting... sweet

Also fun fact of the day, first time i ate lamb in the country in a traditional MEAT PIE! Organic lamb pie with mushy peas... fancy restaurant and it actually says mushy peas.. strange. It seems all restuarants are really into the presentation of food. Everything was fancy eating like Pascales but the food was normal... like Dennys. Even Dennys was fancy. very strange