The next day we had to hightail it back up north, but we stopped by Mangawhero Falls in Tongariro National Park to see one of the filming locations for a scene in The Two Towers. It was an unexpected 2 degrees outside!
Our most daring experience was our rafting tour of the ethereal Waitomo glow worm caves. We hopped into some wetsuits, grabbed our inner tubes, and got promptly shoved into the river to practice jumping. We went down into the caves and were led through a maze of ankle deep rapids and flowing waist-high waters. We jumped backwards off a waterfall, Dylan crawled through a tight tunnel, and we all floated in pitch black as we looked up at the glow worms dangling from the ceilings famously mimicking the night sky.
