Sujata and I take the morning fairly easy, waking to watch some Rugby on the TV. I decide to try my hand at Blackwater Rafting in a glowworm cave, and we buy some local cheeses before heading home. We finish the night with a party at a local friend's house to celebrate Durga Pooja, and like typical Desis, are out till late...

Activities:

• Sleep in till 6 this morning, then laze about and take our time getting ready as we catch up with the current state of the Rugby World Cup on the television. Sujata explains rugby a bit more clearly to me and NZ's obsession with it. It seems vastly more interesting to watch then football, although it is abhorrently violent. However, the room is stocked with a French Press and coffee (did I mention the full kitchen included?), and I am in heaven with my morning Cup of Joe.
• Grabbed breakfast in town at Be Rude Not To Cafe, where I thought it would be rude not have the avocado toast, even though I was really craving pancakes. Sujata opted for a date scone and I sampled it. Quite different from the scones you get in the U.S.! This one was soft and delectable, and I almost wished I had ordered that instead.

Clearly the bacon had to go

• We drove through 2 very cute small towns on our way to Waitomo, home of Caveworld and the Glowworm Caves.
• Blackwater Rafting:
• Not nearly as scary as it sounds. In Waitomo, you can opt to go on an excursion through the glowworm caves by ferry, or by innertube in a pitch black cave. The innertube option is what they refer to as "blackwater rafting" (blackwater because of the pitch blackness). I TOTALLY RECOMMEND THIS OPTION!
• The other people on the excursion with me just so happened to be a family from Ohio! One daughter had spent the semester in NZ studying abroad with her boyfriend, and her sister and mom were both visiting. Very intesting people... the sister was currently a doctor in her residency, and her mom was ex-Slovakian (I think). The sister who was there studying with her boyfriend lamented to me that they had literally been out every single weekend in NZ to do another new activity, and they still felt like they had barely scratched the surface! Imagine how I felt... Anyway, it was strangely nice to hear some American accents and spent the next couple of hours with them.

The All-American Dream Team

• We had two tour guides, who dressed us up in wetsuits and then guided us through the caves. New Zealander's seem to have a real can-do attitude and just expect you to be able to do something. They actually made me the tour leader, meaning I, not they, got to go first through the cave through everything! Terrifying at times, but utterly thrilling, too.

The money shot!

• What was truly incredible to be was that I went from 100C water the day before to being immersed in 10C in the caves the very next day. Amazing.

I wonder if I'd look this dorky doing triathlons

• The time I spent not getting my heart rate up, we spent floating through the cave in absolute and complete darkness, except for the light emitted from the glowworms.

The official tubing map

• Glowworms respond to loud noises. Expect your tour leader to give a very loud THUMP! as he whacks his tube on the surface of the water. This will light up the cave "sky."

Looking up at the lines. The lines are like the spiderwebs spiders create. They attract and catch food to be preyed upon.

Clearly I have not been asked to jump backwards yet

The family that floats together...

• There is a waterfall. You will be instructed to jump backwards off it onto your tube. It is not actually a very tall jump, but scary AF, especially when you are first. But what a rush!

Ahhh!!!

• There is also a giant waterslide. This is significantly more fun, especially when you are first ;) Just when you think you're about to fly off the damn slide because you're going so fast, you are suddenly immersed completely in freezing water. The air was so foggy with my breath and that I almost couldn't see getting up.
• Total rafting excursion was around 2/2.5 hours. Bring a swimsuit and a towel. Would absolutely do again. If you wear contacts, know you will have to shut your eyes twice as you become immersed in water.
• Bring a GoPro

It's blurry, but this is the long climb out of the caves. It's actually quite beautiful up top.

• Return to Auckland, but only after pausing to purchase locally made cheeses at the Mercer Cheese Shop. She cuts them off of big, round slabs of cheese, and there's quite the selection of flavors and types, as well as an assortment of European and Indian delights. Sorry, no pictures :(
• Durga Pooja:
• We ended the night at a family friend's house to celebrate Durga Pooja
• In typical Desi fashion, we arrived at 7:30, didn't eat until 9:30, and left well past midnight
• Had an absolute fucking blast
• They even got me to sing (badly) while guitar was played. Everyone seems to know the 80s/90s rock classics, so I felt right at home
• Food was amazingly well prepared and delicious. Nice and spicy. A special DP kichidee was made. And a choco-mango-whipped cake dessert was served.
• There was also plenty of wine, beer, and the host delighted in serving specialty mixed drinks.
• It had been a long time since I got to hang out with so many Desis. It filled a small hole in my heart.