We are now in Turangi, which is a small town on the North Island.  Two days ago we went to Waitomo, which is known for amazing caves.  We went on a blackwater rafting tour.  It was awesome.  We took a 20 minute hike through the forest and ended at a cave with a surprisingly small opening.  We all squeezed through into a large and lovely cavern.  We each had an inner tube and we walked and tubed through the cave for over an hour.  It was beautiful.  The coolest part was when we all linked togehter, turned off our headlamps and floated through a cavern with glowworms all over the ceiling.  It was like living stars.  Glowworms live in these humid areas and they are kinda like lightning bugs.  They glow a beautiful turquoise color and there were a lot of them.  It was quite amazing.

Then yesterday we took a bus here.  We went on a mountain bike ride.  My butt is hurting today.  It was really pretty with cow pastures, forest and a river.  The landscape here is really something to behold.  After that we went to the hot springs and soaked in some thermal water.  My muscles are grateful.  And then, you Coughlins will be proud… we played cards.  And unfortunately, I must report that Chad won.

Soon we are back on the bus headed to Wellington and tomorrow we will take the ferry to the South Island.  It has been a speedy trip through the North Island, but we are really excited for everything that the South Island has to see and do.

Once on the South Island we went to Kaikoura, which is known for having a lot of marine mammals. It has the perfect feeding grounds for whales and dolphins.  We went on a whale watching boat and saw two Sperm Whales.  They were huge!  They pretty much just hung out on the surface getting some nice deep breaths before they dove back down to feed for about 45 minutes.  They can dive over a mile deep!  It was awe inspiring to see such a huge creature!  Chad got some great video of them too!  Then the boat spotted a large pod of dusky dolphins.  Boy are they speedy little devils!  They were so cute.  And finally we watched some fur seals laying in the sun for a while.  It was a fun 3 hour cruise.

The next day we donned dry suits and swam with a large pod of about 100 acrobatic dusky dolphins.  They are fast and we couldn’t see them in the murky water until they zoomed within a few feet of us.  And we got a great view at water level as they lept out of the water and enjoyed their acrobatic leaps and twists through the air.  It was also amazing to hear their calls in the water.  We made noises to create curiosity about us goofy humans in the water.  It was funny to see us entertaining them in their natural environment, instead of the other way around.  This is how dolphins should be experienced!