Waitamo Gloworm Caves and National Park (Tongariro)

We got up at 6 on boxing day to catch the Magic bus (starting to wish we'd got a camper van with all these 6am starts). First stop was the Waitamo Glowworm caves, where a guide took us underground to see Glowworms in a cave and Stalactites. It was a bit expensive but I have never seen glowworms before so we decided to go and have a look. After the tour, the bus drove to a stream where the driver and two other men off the coach jumped in (it was freezing cold and raining, but I have found that this does not deter New Zealanders from enjoying their summer).

After this, we went to the National Park where we stayed in our second YHA (Youth Hostel International). I don't think we'll stay in another one. The good thing about the YHAs in NZ is you can be sure there will be no Urban retreat types (backpackers who do nothing but drink, pull and brag about how adventurous they are to have travelled down the east coast of Australia). However, most of the YHAs are bleak looking hospital-like buildings where 30 women are forced to share one mirror in the campsite-style bathrooms. I don't know what's worse, a hostel like the YHA with no character and massive communal bathrooms or the modern hostels you get in the cities that are lovely and clean like hotels but attract the most superficial, unfriendly people who really congratulate themselves for having been adventurous in travelling all the way to New Zealand. Its all a game of luck with the hostels here in NZ and I am finding that it is really swaying my opinion on certain places. There wasn't much to do in the National Park if you weren't doing the Tongararo crossing (which we weren't) so we went for a small walk and then Jemma went to the pub with the bus driver and I went on the internet.