Saturday, 26 February 2005

Up early again. I moved sleeping Elizabeth to the couch so I could clean up our beds and pack up. Not able to help much with breakfast or eat much either. Mom had me sit in the front seat which I didn't object to too much...

Derek got the unwelcome news that the tip (NZ for dump) was closed and that we would have to go to Taurangi to get rid of the garbage. They had all of it in their van because they had room and we didn't.

Rest of the trip home was lots of Dramamine for me and not enough for Elizabeth. She said her stomach hurt and we gave her a quarter of a tablet but Mom told her to drink lots of water with it which may have been a mistake. The next time she said her stomach hurt it was followed with projectile vomit. She never does give much warning. I fortunately had a towel up front so I handed that back to Mom. She wiped everything up and managed not to throw up herself. I am (selfishly) so glad it was not me back there. We stopped at the next town and got cleaned up in the public toilet there. I changed Elizabeth's clothes and washed her with a wet towel and Mom changed her clothes also.

Next stop was the town of Waitomo, known for its extensive limestone cave formations. The more adventuresome of our group wanted to go Black water rafting. The first place we stopped at had a wait until 5:30 pm which we couldn't do. The second place down the road they got in at 1:30 so we had time for lunch at a tavern next door. I had a few fries and a tonic water but couldn't handle the fish. Emily was a little nervous too so she didn't eat much either.

Derek, Kacie, Bill, Deb and Emily left to go get suited up. Mom, Aundine, Elizabeth and I went down the road to the Waitomo Glow worm caverns. I got to drive! I was glad that it wasn't too far. Elizabeth and I squeaked in as the last two to go on the next tour. We walked right in. It was a pretty cool tour. We walked through two levels of the cave and then down to a third level that had a river. We got to see the glow worm strings that they use to trap bugs to eat and then we got in a boat and the glow worms were amazing! They were like stars on the ceiling of the cave. It was really something to see. The guide did say not to leave our mouths open when looking up because the glow worms sometimes fall down. I appreciated knowing that. Elizabeth really liked the tour too. She didn't have any problem with being underground.

When we got done we went back to the car and saw Mom and Aundine down the hill at the bottom of the car park. They were sitting at a picnic table in the shade of a big tree. We joined them. They had been having a good time playing with toys. I was pretty wiped out. I had low grade nausea all through the tour. I couldn't figure out why the car sickness wasn't ending when the car stopped. Mom walked back up the hill and drove the car back down by the picnic table for me. I sat in the front seat and read my book until it was time to go back to the other car to meet the rafters. Their cave experience was three hours, ours was 45 minutes.

Mom took the girls across the street to a park and they played there until everyone got back. Their experience had been less than wonderful. They had to suit up in their wet suit bottoms, then they had to walk though a field, up a hill, step over an electric fence and go down a hill to get to the cave mouth while carrying their suit tops and inner tubes. Then they had to climb down into the cave to get to the water. The ground was rocky, uneven and made slick with clay. The roof was often low enough that they had to bend over to get through. When they finally got to the water they had to climb down a set of very narrow slippery stairs to get down.

They made Emily go first for everything. To get into the water they had to hold their tube to their butt and fall backwards into the pitch blackness. The guide said that it was a nine meter drop then said just kidding - it's only 2 meters. Once in the water they sat in a string with their feet up on the tube of the person before them. Bill discovered that he had a problem with claustrophobia if he was sitting in the dark. Kacie said he kept saying "Scotch!". Kacies' inner tube rubbed on a rough part of the side and popped. She said she stuck her finger in the hole and yelled for the guide. He gave her the tube that he had been using which had been Deb's because it was underinflated (Deb had asked the guide about it before they left) and he swam the rest of the way holding onto Emily's tube.

Emily said that he talked to her the whole way. Emily had a great time with that part but the whole walk forever part wasn't so great. Kacie said she was glad that she did it but she wished that they had been given more information about what it was really going to be like. Of the 3 hour tour about half of it was actually in the water looking up at the glow worms on the ceiling. At the end they had to climb straight up a steep staircase to get to the van and they didn't let them stop and empty the water out of their boots. Deb and Emily were less than impressed with the bathroom accommodations.

It felt good to get back on the road and know that there would be no more stops until Hahei. Dad is starting to get sick. He has a sore throat. He has gotten kind of quiet. We were about 30 minutes from Hahei when Derek pulled off. Dad went on a little ways and then pulled off to wait for him. We waited for quite a while and finally turned around and went back into the town until we saw the van. Then I had to go looking for them. Not in the restaurant, not in the public bathroom, finally saw them way down the beach.

Derek saw me waving and came back into yelling distance. Aundine had had a meltdown - too much time in the car. So they were staying in town to walk on the beach and have some dinner. We went on and finally arrived home. The Turners had arrived before us and had dinner ready. I said hello to them and that may have been the only time the whole weekend that I saw them.

I called you and then I went to bed. I don't think I had any dinner.