Maggot crap

Out of Auckland now. The mom of 2 of my good friends lives in Auckland so we visited with her yesterday for the morning. We will try to do a hike or something with her toward the end of the month. But it was so cool to get the perspective of a Canadian who has lived in New Zealand for 5 years.

We decided to rent a car. With two of us, it was the far more economical way to go. We are thrilled to have it because it gives us so much more freedom. We have the ability to do whatever we want now. And it also means we won't ever have to carry everything on our backs because we can always leave some things in the car. Not at all what we planned but it will work.

We stayed a beautiful hostel last evening in Waitomo. The view was amazing. But we were in a dorm room with 6 other people and it kind of stank. I have a poor sense of smell so it didn't bother me so much, but Jess's sniffer is quite sensitive. So today we moved over to a Holiday Park down the road and got a private cabin for the exact same price! Holiday parks here are sort of like really nice campgrounds. There is a common cooking area, laundry and washroom facilities. Also TV, email, phones, pool, etc. It's a big grassy area with a few gynormous trees and people put up their tents wherever they wish or park a camper van (very popular here). A few cabins dot the landscape and there you have it - a holiday park.

Our big even today was to go through the Waitomo Caves. We did this black water rafting tour on a river that flows through them. Very cool. Awesome guides. Not to mention I got to wear a full wetsuit for the first time. Very sexy. I will have to upload pictures when I return. Inside the caves there are millions of glowing spots that look like stars. It really was terribly cool. Essentially, it is the poop of the larvae of a fly that lives in the cave that glows. Kind of gross, but really cool to see. The "rafting" was fun. I'm really glad we did it.

Oh yeah, driving! It's on the wrong side of the road. So weird. If you've seen "The Holiday" I felt exactly like Cameron Diaz acts when she first drives in Britain. I suspect we will get used to it soon though. Jess drove first which meant she drove in Auckland. We, of course, got lost almost immediately. Our rule is that if we aren't perfectly comfortable or sure of our next move, we follow the car in front of us, even if it goes a way we don't want to. That means we may get lost a few times but honestly, it was pretty fun getting lost. I mean, we were lost in New Zealand after driving on the wrong side of the road. Can't beat that.

And the countryside is stunning.

Absolutely no idea of what we are going to do tomorrow other than continue south. We've got nothing booked or planned and that's absolutely perfect with me.