After my last go at hitching left me at my beach mansion taking part in a yachting regatta, I figured I would give it another go. At about 3 in the afternoon I left Auckland via the South Motorway with a thumb in the air. Two guys from Fiji picked me up and took me about 20 minutes out of town as we talked about my Fijian adventures from the past few weeks. I then got picked-up by a genuine Kiwi redneck in this little mini truck that I noticed only went about a quarter of the speed that the other cars were going on the highway. This guy was going on and on about compound bow hunting and fishing out at his place on the Corromandel Peninsula and invited me to go to his house, but in fear that I might end up an "American Guy" pelt on his living room wall, I declined. Better yet I was on my way to the Caves of Waitomo...

The redneck dropped me off and as I was walking down the highway I noticed another hitcher looking for a pick-up. We got to talking, his name was Ido from Israel. I told him how lucky my hitchhiking adventures had been in the prior days and I was looking for a repeat. In broken English he then told me how he too had been lucky and shagged a girl from the Chech Republic on only his second day in New Zealand. Onward we go.

After walking to the next exit and hanging out in a town where it is certainly O.K. to date your sister, the ride finally came. A maroon Mercedes pulls over to the side of the road and I notice the license plate reads "HAIR DR." I am certainly happy to have a hitching buddy on this adventure as Guert the hair and scalp specialist from Auckland gets out to help with the luggage. Sketchy would not do this guy justice with his combed back red hair and a " I like little boys" look that could scare dracula back to his coffin. We had been waiting for over an hour for a ride so we went ahead and excepted the offer. Guert was apparently going to a "meeting" in Hamilton, about an hour South.

We were dropped off in Hamilton by the motorway and went straight back to hitching making a late evening attempt to get down to Waitomo Caves where we were going caving the next day. An hour and a half went by and we decided to go walking into town to find a hostal. I was huntched over on the sidewalk and 3 ladies walked by offering their help in finding our way to the hostal. They said they would give us a ride and then one of them invited us to stay at her house for the evening. Geee, let me think... we stayed at her house.

Her husband was playing the guitar when we arrived and did not seem surprised in the slightest that his wife brought some backpackers home. We had a cold beer, a meal, tea and a dip in the hot tub before heading off to bed. We had to prepare for spelunking the next day.

Waitomo is an area in NZ that is founded completely on limestone. As water seeps into the cracks in the limestone for thousands and thousands of years, caves are formed by the mild acid deterioration that occurs. We chose to go trekking into Waitomo's deepest cave that spans back over 3 Kilometers.

We drove in a 4X4 Land Cruiser to the head of the trail to get outfitted in our caving gear. We got dressed up in a wetsuit, big white gum boots, purple pants, and a helmet with a caving light attached. The adventure began with a 160 ft. rappell down to enter the cave. It was steaming hot out, but as soon as you entered the cave, it was the 40 degrees that it stays all year round. I was the first to enter and when I got down there the light from the sky is minimal and it is very quiet. I turned on my light and started to make out the stelagtights and rock formations through the smokey filter that my breathe created. Quiet, only the drips of water from the cave ceiling and the distant voices from above could be heard.

We trekked upstream through the cave and were instructed to sit on some rocks and turn our lights off. The ceiling looked like a starry night in the middle of the desert. Gloworms are the larval stage of some fungus that grows in the caves. They produce their own bioluminesence to attract insects that fly into the cave looking for daylight. The cave is stone quiet, but thousands of gloworms are battling it out to survive in this harsh environment. It was amazing. We floated in tubes down the river and saw huge rock formations that have taken millions of years to develop.

The intrigue in the caves is similar to diving. For just a few hours we were taken out of the world we see on a daily basis and put into an environment that has survived and been established for MILLIONS of years. Gloworms have hunted insects, and the eels have fed in the river rocks. It really was quite fascinating.

I'm back on the road... this time with a swiss guy in his van he bought for a couple thousand dollars in Auckland. We're going to do a 6 hour hike tomorrow up to volcanic craters near Lake Taupo. Then it's off to the East Coast for a food and wine festival.

Guert would be impressed.