Glow worms and such

So I definitely skipped a day or did something weird somewhere, but on the 29th I know we did glow worms.

29 - Since we were already in Westport, it was a quick-ish half hour drive to Charleston, where the caves are. We were handed our snazzy wetsuits, complete with socks and booties, in a bag to take with us on the famous "Nile Train". Okay, probably not super famous...but it's this hilarious little train the company owns that chugs through the forest and gets us closer to the caves. They broke us into three groups - we were with two other couples, one young couple from England who are in Nz till July and another older couple who used to live in Canberra but now permanently live in Wellington. We got off the train and climbed a bazillion stairs in our wetsuits. Our guide was very fresh and young and enthusiastic - she's been involved with the caves for at least 10 whole years...since she was EIGHT. We saw stalactites and stalagmites and all those other cavey things as we wandered through, being careful not to touch the top or sides of the caves - at some places Jeremy was more than doubled over. Oh yeah, we were also carrying huge innter tubes this whole time. The best part was when we got in the water...we linked up as a chain of tubes, and floated through a galaxy of glow worms, which was beautiful. Then we got to finish by tubing down the Nile River back to the train platform. As soon as we were done, we waited 50 hours to get this free photo thing and then were back on the road, this time towards Marlborough, near Blenheim. We had a wine tour booked the next day, so we were hoping the floods wouldn't hold us back!