Adventures in Paradise: Day Eighteen of Adventures in Paradise!

After four long sea days of waiting we have arrived at Auckland, New Zealand at last! Auckland is known for having the tallest free standing structure in the southern hemisphere, the sky tower. The sky tower is a 1100 ft. tall observation/restaurant tower, similar to the Stratosphere in Las Vegas. Here's two interesting facts about New Zealand. One, the people residing there are called Kiwis, after the famous bird that lives there. Two, the population of New Zealand is four million while their sheep population is forty million. In other words, sheep outnumber people ten to one. Anyways, to start out our tour, mom and I had a quick breakfast and went to the theater to meet our tour group. We were then ushered outside to a bus and taken outside the city of Auckland to the city of Waitomo (around 150 miles south). As we drove outside of Auckland, the countryside turned from Metropolis to green rolling hills. When we got to Waitomo, we saw a animal show, ate a country style buffet, and then we went onwards to the glowworm caves. The caves were amazing, and at the end, we took a gondola boat ride in pitch darkness with the glowworms above us. Glowworms are the larva form of a moth that glow blue in order to attract and catch insects towards it. They also spin sticky glue-like strands to catch their prey, using the blue light emitted from their tails as a lure. There must have been millions of glowworms, for as we traveled in the boat ride, it looked like we were flying through outer space with stars all around us. After the caves, we went back to the ship, which took approximately three hours. Fortunately, the ship is staying in Auckland another night, so we can explore its sights tomorrow. The only bad thing about Auckland is that its COLD (the high today was only 60 degrees Fahrenheit), windy, and rainy, even though it is their spring. It didn't rain too much today, but tomorrow should be much worse. For our entertainment tonight, there was no live show, only Pirates of the Caribbean playing in the theater. Well, that's all I have for today, stay tuned tomorrow for our second day in Auckland!

Sailing into Auckland - The Sky tower is that big structure in the background

We made it!

State Road 1 in Auckland. As you notice, they drive on the left side of the road. The free ways are set up like the ones in the USA

I guess the USA is down under now!

A Kiwi Bird (taxidermy)

Hmm... these places sure do look familiar!

You'll always find one of these no matter where you are!

The Green Rolling Hills of the North Island of New Zealand

Lots of Cows, our tour guide told us we were in dairy country

Beautiful Countryside

Their plug outlets are almost like ours, except they are slanted and have switches next to each one.

Part of the Billy Black Animal Show, this is a cute Kiwi Bear.

A Hungry Ram

Billy Black shearing a sheep.

The Finale of the Billy Black Animal Show, Billy comes out on a steer.

New Zealand is going into their Spring, so most of the trees were in colorful bloom.

More of the Countryside

We are at the caves! They didn't allow pictures, but I do have some from a book we bought below!

The exterior of the caves, with our gondola boat.

Some scenes from the cave with the glowworms on the left.

The Waitomo Glowworm Caves Entrance

Australia and New Zealand have a fierce rivalry... this picture illustrates that. Notice the miniature size of Australia and that they call it "West Island" with the fighting Kangaroo and Kiwi in the background.