funny. we just got back from murphy's, an irish pub near the octagon. and some of the songs being performed were almost unrecognisable. i got a shock when i realised that one of the songs being played was times like these by the foo fighters. and strangely enough, it has started playing on my itunes right this second. synchronicity.

day 7, 30th august 2007: aukland to waitomo, i can't believe we're drinking coffee in a cave, with these crazy wet suits on!

thankfully, there were no flat batteries this time and we blew flying kisses to aukland as he headed on to waitomo. i don't know why but doesn't the word "waitomo" sound like a place full of bats??

we were looking forward to waitomo though. because of the motel we were going to be staying in!! i mean, have you ever stayed in an aeroplane motel?? i'm not talking about stretching yourself horizontally on those sleek business class seats on singapore airlines, you lucky *peep*!! i mean, we cooked, bathed, shat, slept, watched tv, played bridge (not me) and whatever else on a real-life aeroplane! and it was the first time i experienced sleeping on an electrically-heated bed/blanket? i don't know exactly know what was heated but off came the socks and jacket and blanket because it felt like i was sleeping on warm coal!

here's a video tour of the motel. you can even hear the farm animals trying to get their say in. this video was taken the morning after so you can get a glimpse of our morning routines during the trip i.e. breakfast and packing!


so...my faithful lonely planet guide says that "waitomo is a must-do on the NZ adventure activities pilgrimage and justifiably so." and i don't think they're very far off really. just one or two hours upon arrival, we were already squeezing ourselves into these crazily tight wet suits and some other gear and of course, our bob the builder helmets and heading off towards some caves!

let me explain some stuff first. the name waitomo comes from wai (water) and tomo (hole or shaft) and waitomo is apparently full of these limestone caves. and the other thing is that, bavani was really afraid. but you did well, girlfriend! giggle giggle.

so, we began by abseiling down one of these shafts. it was the most interesting abseiling experience i've had. the beginning part was sooo narrow, and after that, i kept wondering whether my hands were brushing against glow-worms everytime i hit the wall because i was so paranoid about the slimy things i was feeling. it's nice to look at glow-worms really, amazing even! but i don't think i want to touch them!! haha. so anyway, our heroine for the day, bavani, was petrified coming down for some reason. so there i was, standing next to the cute, hungover kiwi belayer at the bottom, singing UNDER THE SEA to bavani, with some occasional alterations to the lyrics. and then, we ran out of words and had to change song. so we sang hakuna matata. even the belayer joined in because he knew the lyrics this time haha.

once we all were through, we walked through some passage way and reached the flying fox where we were hooked onto a rope and sent hurtling down into darkness! every time someone went, we would hear a really loud thud at the end of it and i was so convinced that they had landed onto a giant beanbag or something. don't ask me why i thought they would bring a giant beanbag into the cave. so when my turn came, i got a pleasant shock! yes, everything went dark BUT...suddenly i found myself staring at "glow-in-the-dark stars"!! so many of them, glow-worms of course! then i reached the end of the line, and there was no loud thud! it was just our crazy guide banging the tubes to frighten all those yet to come flying down.

it was at this point where they got us to sit in one line and dangle our legs over the edge of some rocks while they distributed cups to each one of us. then they went down the line saying, "coffee or tea?" what the hell!!! haha. and they also gave us some yummy cake to eat. i was hesitant about drinking the coffee because i knew i would be needing the toilet real soon should any enter my gullet. unfortunately, i was right and i had to pee in the cave sometime later. no, it wasn't the fact that i had no proper toilet that irked me. it was having to remove the stupid wet suit and put it back on again!!! peeing has never been more tiring!!!

so after having our high-tea, we were asked to take a tube each and then, jump off some cliff into the icy water below! there i found myself again, giving a pep talk to bavani. and i'm thinking, ever since when did i get so brave that i could be giving pep talks to other people instead?? truth is, i was like, shit do i have to jump off that thing?? then bavani tells me to go ahead off her after all that pep-talking and i'm thinking, who's gonna pep talk her now??? eugene definitely isn't helping!! haha.

so i take a leap into the water and oh my gosh, i think i got a brainfreeze for a few seconds. ICY!! the next part was fun. we floated on our tubes through a cave, and lay down on one another, as we stared towards the cave ceiling and oooh-ed and aaaah-ed at the galaxies of glow-worms above us. galaxies, because they looked like stars! and i started singing, "man you should have seen us, on the way to venus, walking on the milky way, it was quite a day hey hey..." remember that song?? by OMD?

my head is vibrating alot though, because i had placed it on dias' leg and he was shivering AGAIN. shiver, shiver, shiver. and after all that, he'll still tell you, "i love this!".

ah too bad, like MOST good things, not all, miss nelly, it came to an end. the next part saw us negotiating all these jagged uneven pieces of rock as we walked on further into the caves. i was amazed by our guides who knew exactly where to step, which rocks to step on, everything! amazing!! this was the part i had to go pee, when we stopped for another one of those coffee-breaks! and they were even handing out cadbury MILK CHOCOLATE, no nuts!! and i declined!!! haha. the cute belayer was so shocked that i wouldn't have any chocolate but i was busy strategising about my pee la!

we finally reached a fork in the path. robert frost's words echoed in our minds. "two roads diverged in a wood, and i--i took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." drama la, you shireen. but really, we now had to make a choice whether to take the easier route or the harder route, with waterfalls and all that. and yeap, we chose the harder one. i really felt like indiana jones the whole time. squeezing in between rocks, climbing up waterfalls against the flow of the falling water, crawling through tunnels, climbing up more waterfalls! oh gosh! exciting! (tiring!)

but not as tiring as the walk back i tell you! can you imagine, we go through all that in the caves but the most tiring part is the walk back from the caves to the van once we are on land already? crazy! i find alot of things crazy huh? i'm one to say that!

the cute belayer probably went off to nurse his hangover so we took a photo with the other guide alone. caving like that was so fun (save for those wet suits) and i really felt like the adventurer i always dreamed myself to become one day when i was say, 6 or 7. really, people would ask about my ambition and i would say, i wanted to be an adventurer! haha. crazy (stop saying crazy, shireen!!) (i can't stop!!!) (stop it right now!! everyone's gonna think you're crazy now!! talking to yourself on your blog!!) (i thought i was always talking to myself on my blog!) (shoooosh!)

check out the lord of the rings thingy on the right!!

dinner was CRAZY. really, it's apt to say crazy now. bavani and i cooked chicken curry and some genius amongst us said we should eat outside because the sky was so clear. really, it was, totally powdered with stars it looked like we were in those glow-worm caves again. so eugene and dias are hard at work preparing the ambience outside i.e. lighting up kerosene lamps or whatever gadget dias has brought along. i knew from the beginning it would be disaster. the wind was on a rampage or something man. i had to put on socks and shoes, and more layers over the ones i was already wearing just to eat outside!!! we went back in after a few minutes because 1. it was toooooooo windy 2. everything was getting cold too fast 3. the wind was not funny anymore 4. it was too windy 5. it was too windy 6. it was too...

will never forget it. i think i was really hungry after dinner that night. i thought about you , mervin prakash. because you like aeroplanes and adventure. and i knew you would like what we were planning to do tomorrow as well, quad-biking!! that's coming up tomorrow!

crazy. 'nuff said.

p.s. gavin didn't snore. he can be an ambassador for the beds at woodlyn park. "i totally didn't snore last night thanks to the comfortable beds at woodlyn park. thanks, woodlyn park! every traveller's dream!"