Day 6 recap (Mon Feb 14)

[Scott] It's Monday morning and our stay in Auckland has come to an end. I got a good night's sleep and I think my sleep schedule is back on track. I woke up and went for a run through the neighborhoods. The Grey Lynn area where we are staying is very hilly, adding to the character. The clouds unleased a heavy downpour on me, so I returned to the hotel soaking wet head to toe. I headed downtown on the bus to pickup our rental car, while Stef packed everything up. I was a little nervous about beginning my New Zealand driving experience in the city, but I managed, although it did take some time adjusting my bearings to the driver's seat being on the right. It took me a really long time to find my way back to the hotel, but I did finally make it back after almost an hour of driving around lost and we headed south for the Waitomo Glowworm Caves which is about a two hour drive. The countryside is really nice and it is amazing how much of the land is untouched. We enjoyed driving the open roads - rolling hills with many sheep and cattle. There are very few houses out in the countryside. We arrived in Waitomo and found it to be a very lush green area - almost like a rain forest (natives call it "the bush"). (click for more) There isn't much besides the touristy stuff, and the town might not even be on the map if not for the world famous caves.. We did the 45 minute tour, and had a very good guide, a native Maori (NZ's native people). She told us all about the history of the limestone caves - the geology and discovery - and many interesting facts about the unique glow worms. There are interesting stalagtite and stalagmite formations, but what makes these caves so unique is definitely the glow worms. There is a large "room" in the cave with 50+ foot high ceilings called the cathedral, where they hold small private concerts by world famous singers due to its perfect acoustic qualities. She took us on a walk down through the caves followed by a short boat ride down the river at the bottom level of the caves, and above us it looked like the night sky full of stars. Thousands upon thousands of these tiny glow worms were on the ceiling of the cave. When you come out of the cave at the end, it feels like you're in the Amazon - thick vegetation and really huge trees which were like a smaller version of redwoods. It is definitely a one-of-a-kind experience, and I think New Zealand is one of the only places in the world where you can see anything like this glow worm cave. Afterward we toured their well done museum and watched a short video, and then we hit the road toward Tongariro National Park hunting for a place to stay for the night to get rested for the big hike I have planned for us tomorrow - our first outdoor adventure of the trip! We stopped for a burger in the small town of Te Kuiti. They put an interesting sauce on the burger - a sweet and sour onion sauce which actually tasted pretty good. We arrived in the town of National Park at 10pm. We stopped at Howard's Lodge, which was recommended in our travel book, and the front desk lady had apparently headed home to sleep. One of the tenants recommended another lodge and said we could find its owner at the tavern, which we decided not to do but we thought it would it would have been a funny story if we did. Instead, we stopped at Adventure Lodge and Motel. We poked around in the reception area and after a few minutes a sleepy eyed woman staggered out. She was noticeably startled, but said she would be happy to set us up with a room for the night. She was a really nice woman (after she woke up) and convinced us that we should tramp (hike) the Tongariro Crossing, known as the most famous one day track (trail) in New Zealand.