Glow worms and sulpher smells...

Blogging from the road, lierally...

Here we are, our first day of New Zealand already over. We're driving cross country, with our newly purchased music selection (tears for fears, Moby, Gregorian chants to the Beatles, and Irish Drinking Songs), to today's destination, Napier, to sample some of the country's most exquisite wines.

Yesterday, after arriving into Auckland and meeting our friend Dan, we picked up our finely tuned automobile, a Ford Fiesta! ..." Its pretty much a party... On wheels..."

A little note about driving on the other side of the road: its strange... Like learning to drive all over again. What makes it even more interesting is shifting with your left hand driving with your rightn but still pushing down the clutch with your left foot.

Anyways... It was recomended to us, by many people, to see the glow worms and do the blackwater rafting in Waitomo Caves. We arrived mid day and scheduled a tour for 3pm. They suited us up in an interesting assortment of wetsuit, boots, shorts, and helmet and headlamp. After being introduced to the temperature of the water and being shown how to properly jump in with a tire innertube we started our journey. We climbed through a small hole in the rocks amidst the trees. Once below we started floating, hiking, swimming our way through the caves. (We were greeted by a nice size eel about 2 ft. Long as we first got into the water). By the time we had descended 50 meters below the surface of the earth we saw our first sightings of glow worms. Which actually are really maggots and not worms at all. And its actually their feces that glow as a means to attract an unsuspecting food source thinking its daulight. After making our way through for another half hour we finally resurfaced to the world above. (Pictures soon to follow)

After Blackwater Rafting it was back in the car. This time to Rotorua where we spent the night. Roto is known for its numerous thermal pools and geysers, hence the smell of rotten eggs. Even as we're driving you can see the steam rising above various spots across the landscape.

We made it to Roto, celebrated NZ day 1 with some beers and got some sleep.

This morning we are proud to say we purchased a cheap tent. For the rest of the time here we'll be camping every night! The scenery is amazing and its beautiful.

We have 1 more full day here on the North Island then we take the ferry over to the South Island which everyone tells us is even better! Hard to believe!...