31/1/10 Waitomo Caves

Had a really lousy night with this cold, up coughing, it woke me, I couldn't breathe. As a result slept in this morning. Up at 9 to persistent rain. Just going to make a picnic lunch and off to Waitomo caves. Still raining. Left at 12 noon to go to caves, took our time and stopped at Otorohanga for lunch (too wet for a picnic) and a little light shopping. Bought a gift for Dot & Dave and one for David Brown. Mum bought lunch, we headed off for the caves 15kms distant and arrived just before 2.30. Which was lucky as we were just in time to join the 2.30 tour. It cost $39, Mum paid for me out of what she owes me for the car. Money is going down steadily. Worried about trip to South Island. Fran won't agree to hostel, and I can't afford to stay in motels. I've been looking at prices and they are going to be at least $50 per night each, which is twice as much as I would like to spend. Caves at Waitomo were splendid. Not long but very interesting, lit by glow worms. We had a punt down the under ground river in the dark and they looked like stained glass windows overhead. Much ooh-ing and ahh-ing, very quietly as we had been told to stay silent, and although the boat was full, we were just that. The tour company took our photo as we emerged into the light, but they were $30 a pop and it was too much for a photo of us looking like startled rabbits. The gorge where the underground stream emerged was amazing, really tropical jungle, although I think it was temperate rainforest. We got off at a landing stage and passed through the jungle on the way up the hill to the exit. I think the rain made it more special. Of course we had our posh brollies!
Came back through torrential rain, had to drive really slowly, as would prefer to live. Luckily you don't get many speed freaks in New Zealand, everyone drives slowly, and not many people bother to overtake, quite happy to bowl along at whatever speed the car in front is doing. They wouldn't survive in any British city!
As we approached Cambridge we saw where a car had left the road. The police were still there, slowing everyone down. This was the third smash we have seen today. Called at Fran & Di's for a coffee on the way back. Fran was busy killing aliens on the computer, but Di and her Mum sat with us for a chat. Her Dad was asleep on the sofa, but came round when he smelled the coffee. Jonny was ligging around on a sofa too, but he stayed there watching a film in the other room.
Left about 5.30 to come back here, but before we did that we checked how far we had walked on 27/1/10 by driving up to the view point. It was 13.6kms or about 8 miles. Had tea and a glass of wine, then watched the weather on the local news. There have been landslides and floods, loads of people stuck on the motorway near Auckland; I guess we didn't see the worst of it.