Rotorua...smells like yellowstone to me

Well i'm spending a couple days in rotorua, its the geothermal center of these parts, lots of pools and geysers and smelling things all over.
the other day i was in waitomo and had a great caving adventure. tired to sign up for a wet trip going blackwater rafting but i was the only one that signed up so they couldn't take the trip but i got upgraded to the Lost World trip. we hiked down to a huge crevice in the ground and basically dropped in...they call it abseiling. its like repelling but just straight down. it was fun and a little scary, mostly because it was 100 meters down...that's the length of a football field! and once down we went on an hour long caving adventure where i was able to lead us around most of the way (only 1 other guy and also the guide) all the way back into the cave we found a little grove of glow worms (which are actually fly larvae, maggots, and what is glowing in their digestive system releasing energy... but glow worms sounds more romantic!! eh?
the next morning i went on another glow worm trip, this one was in a boat down a little cave river, millions of glow worms, its like a sky at night, but with blue stars! i wanna try to see if i can get some eggs or something back home and grow my own, they are so cool!!!! no photos though, they don't allow pics.
then back on the magic bus to rotorua in the afternoon. had a great night at a maori village for a hangi, with concert amd dinner. i met up with giuliana and amanda, my UK girls from the other day that gave me a ride to auckland. it was so amazing, very traditional and all in full costume. started with a greeting (if you wanna call it that) by the villages warriors where they come out to intimidate newcomers, we weren't aloud to react or anything so it was a little weird because its kind of funny the faces and noises they make, lots of grunting, sticking out their tongue and bulging out their eyes. then we had a little concert, lots of singing and dancing, gave me the chills, very powerful. dinner was great, all cooked underground with hot rocks...lamb, fish, pork, root veggies including NZ's kumara (a sweet potato). and other great stuff.
today giuliana, mandy and i all went down to a geothermal wonderland, very cool. really just a really long nature walk with lots of bubbling pools, weird birds and the largest hot spring lake in the world. it was a great after noon, i'm going to miss those girls, random chance we met and made great friends with them...to bad i'm leaving so soon, would have loved to travel with them some more. said they wanna come to oregon someday though.
well i take off tomorrow for a day of bus travel and adventure, not sure the plan but back in auckland for another fun friday night out!!! then saturday night i got tickets to the national rugby game, its a pre-world cup matchup!!! All blacks (NZ's team) vs. France!!!! should be a blow out by the all blacks. bonus is anne-cecile, the french girl i met at the backpacker and i got tickets together so it should be extra fun because we can root for different sides!!
thanks for the emails and caring for all that wrote, i miss and love you all!!!