be sure to rollover ‘notes’ to see photo captions!

We left Napier and crossed to the other side of the North Island to the Waitomo glowworm caves. First we were kitted out in wetsuits, helmets and innertubes – and those wetsuits were a struggle to get on! It was a comedy of errors in the changing rooms. We spent over an hour wading through the cave system, jumping over waterfalls and floating down the river with the thousands of tiny blue glowworm lights overhead as our only illumination (and our only guide out of the cave). We got chocolate-covered marshmallow fish for a snack in the cave, and had a lot of fun with our guides, Brydie and Lloyd (who has no sense of smell!).

Afterwards we got hot showers, hot soup and hot bagels. We drove on to Auckland and settled into our hotel suite – our home until we boarded the cruise ship.