Latest adventures

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After two weeks in Malaysia, Beth and I took off to Waitomo for another glow worm experience. We had hit up Lake Karapiro with my dad to see them on kayaks. This time we hit up a guided event with Cave World because of a grabone.co.nz deal. Beth booked the trip but they set us up on a guided night walk of the cave instead of the black water rafting that we purchased. So we ended up doing the rafting the next day.

The guided night experience was very good. We got to see the cave they excavated and all the bones that they uncovered. We were able to see the glow worms up close and learned a lot. I would recommend this for any one that doesn't want to get cold and in the water. Of course I was excited to get in the water and go rafting and by rafting I mean sitting in a tube. It was like being in a dark lazy river that was lit by the chemical reaction of a larvae.

We came back the next morning and got put into a group with a bunch of University of Waikato students. We were handed wet suits, booties, and a helmet and we jumped into a van for a short ride to the cave property. Then it was a short walk across a paddock, which was hot in the wet suit, but we were soon going to be cooling off as we descended into the darkness. Prior to entering the dark cave we were handed a black inner tube that would be our raft for the laid back meander down the stream. We opted to go through a small tunnel  where we had to crawl through to see the hidden water fall (the picture above).
There were a couple places were we were able to jump down into a lower level of the cave and they even brought in a slide.

We grabbed each others feet to form a train of tubes and stared at the cave ceiling

After the trip to Waitomo, I've been busy with getting certified to go scuba diving. It was 2 weekends in the water, both pool and lake, and 2 long nights in the class. It was a lot of fun and I'm thinking it will be something I could really get into. With the cost of the certification, the entire class gets a free hire so we are planning to go out as a group to  Goat Island. If we are lucky we'll catch some cray fish and do a beach BBQ. What is the next adventure?  I don't know, but the past 2 years have flown by.