Updates and Spelunking

Hi ya'll.
My internet is either really spotty or very expensive. So I have heaps more pictures to upload when I get decent service.
Today I went grocery shopping. Exciting I know! But it was storming so hard this morning I spent the day running errands and applying for jobs. Sice the weather was so bad I went back to Little Earth Lodge to book another night. The lodge is adjacent to a series of caves called Abbey Caves but I was advised not to explore them alone.
So back at LEL the weather cleared up to a bright but not very warm day. I met 2 French girls and 4 German guys and we grabbed helmets and water shoes and headlamps then tramped over to the first cave.

On the way we passed through a meadow with grazing sheep. Then through a rock forest.

When we got to the first cave you had to climb down 10 feet to get into it. All we could hear was rushing water and it was pitch black inside almost right away.

Entrance to the third cave

The inside of the cave was fantastic. The walls were gray, white, pink and yellow. Sometimes it was narrow and small, other parts were 30 feet tall and 15 feet wide. Sometimes we climbed over rocks and sometimes we were wading through freezing, waist deep water.

Once inside we all shut off our lights. Hundreds of glow worms were above us.  Like aqua colored stars set in the blackest of skies. They were all throughout the cave which took us about an hour to traverse to the end and back out again. I wish I could say I took amazing pictures, but unfortunately my camera skills have not evolved enough for pitch black photography.

The last cave had glow worms too but was much shorter. It went all the way under a hill and out the
other side. It took us about 20 minutes to get through. It was also amazing and unique from the other
caves with different rock formations and much deeper water.



Blurry pic- I'll just call this the action shot

 The last 10 feet I had to swim in the freezing water with my camera held high above my head. I was
having flashbacks to the time I took Lauren canyoning through the Zion subway.
Then I made dinner. My first home made dinner in 2 weeks. It wasn't great but I missed cooking a lot!

Outside the kitchen at LEL

Then out to downtown Whangarei with 2 girls, American and Irish, and 3 guys British and Dutch. We went to a place called Rynoz -shout out to my bro Ryan! The place was packed with rowdy locals and 2 girls got into a brawl right in front of me as we were leaving. Then onto a Irish pub called McMorriseys which was definitely more my scene. It had a small live band and a fire place. Very cozy. As I tried to find us a cab home I chatted with the drummer Nick who was a friendly local and gave me a NZ ball cap before he left. It was a fun but late night.