Waitomo

Entry of the last road trip.


This is my last trip in NZ! oh nooooooooo.... LAST TRIP. got around 20 days back to Singapore. Thats so fast.. gonna miss so many things about this place.

Went to Waitomo over the weekends. Supposed to be having our reading week now.. but since all the exchange students only aim to pass... hahahaa.. we decided to go travel instead.

First up, Pokeno. Cheap cheap ice cream place again. Had lunch there.. ice cream was the filling thing. Only had 1 scoop this time though! tempted to get 2 but... 1 is good. Got it for $1.50 and the serving was generous. Thats probably the only cheap thing in NZ. Chose the wrong flavour though. Should have gotten the maple walnut or the dutch choc.

Huge ice cream. indeed! alot of ppl go there for ice cream.

We saw this group of young boys all dressed up in suits. so smart!

*P.S: Though the uncle beside the little boy is in suit too, he is not involved in this discussion.

James, Kimpeng, Aik khoon, poster, Me

-- Day 2: To the caves! --

Woke up early to go caving. The boys took the hard route.. got to climb rocks, abseil, jump down waterfalls etc etc... Bad swimmers like me are better off on solid grounds. This is a man made tunnel that leads to the cave itself..

And then we saw all the formations in there. Can be quite dark at times... Reminded me of 小龙女! hahaha. I remembered reading she lived in a dark cave and moves around with complete ease.

National Treasure! Haha.. We were walking down this long slope which goes around in circles. When the lights were on, we could see a rock down there and water falling on it. Very Da Vinci Code/ National Treasure kind of feel la.

stalactite

Stalactite too. but formed differently. calcium carbonate drips down from the slide of the wall and deposit crystals there. Calcite then slowly accumulates. Millions and millions of years later thats what you get! A potato chip looking Stalactite.

Rock layerings. I cant remember if there is a geographic term for that.. My geog knowledge has all... evaporated. Ex/present geog students out there... Is there a geog term for this?

Spot the glow worm! hahaha.. miserable 1 blue dot. Saw more but the dont appear on my camera. Basically its all of such small blue glowing dots.

All those lines are created by the glow worm. It basically lets down this fishing line kind of thing and wait for those insects which are abit blind.. cannot see properly in the dark.. fly fly fly and "ARH! DAMN! CANT MOVE! WHAT HAPPENED???" Same idea as spiderwebs.

Our path, lit with dim blue lights

got out of the cave and came to appreciate the colours of the world.

stopped by Big Apple Cafe for some snacks/lunch. Had this apple blueberry pie. Not very good. I think I can bake better ones.. though i havent tried yet. Haha.. but i sure imagine myself baking nicer tasting ones! Had some time before its time we go for the glow worm cave. Saw too many tourist coaches parked outside the cave. Decided to take a later tour when all the tourists are gone.

Went to watch bunny shearing! This bunny here is half sheared. Poor thing eh.. wonder if it feels half cold. Anyway this is supposed to be a small bunny. 9 months old.

Bunny with limbs tied up. Very tame! It just stick out its hand/legs and wait to be tied up.

The shearing begins. The lady was turning it around like the bunny was on a bbq rack. :( Tadah! looks like a normal bunny now. Very soft leh! nice to touch even without fur.it used to be

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An unsheared bunny. Huge fur ball. Haha.. looking at the proportions.. maybe 70% fur, 30% rabbit?

Time for the waitomo cave! it is a glow worm cave. But they dont allow photography in there. Anyway saw alot alot of glow worms.. probably thousands of them? Pretty pretty! But since they are worms after all.. we decided to keep our amazement silent. Open ur mouth in awe at your own risk.

Got this picture off the brochure. It was something like that.

9 peeps travelling together this round. latest friend made is Mo! the guy in brown jacket. Onyx's friend.. from hk too. Anyway I dont know if i spelt the name right. He studies property too. Our travel clique is expanding... We are a tour grp by ourselves.