Caving.Yep, that's what it is called. Not "walking through really small, dark, creepy places where there is that dripping sound that echoes across unknown distances".I think that would be more appropriate. However, in movies when characters enter a cave, that dripping sound is actually really cool.And when there is not a killer after you, you aren't searching for your long lost son or something melodramatic like that, the eerie caves can have their charm.In Waitomo, the famous "glow worms" that pepper the ceiling like some confused set of stars make the darkness that enveloped us as we (my IFSA group) rafted into the blackness made it seem like we could just be floating along on a river.Except that there was no wind, no animals (thank goodness, 'cause apparently there are some pretty nasty things that live down there) that we could see, and no sounds but the "drip drip" of the water off of the stalactites, or stalagmites.

As advertised the "adventure weekend" was full of some pretty cool adventures involving rafting down black water rapids, and rock climbing on natural formations in a valley.We started out with a long 3 hour drive south from Auckland to the Waitomo region that has a small town that pretty much only exists to serve the tourism that comes from all over the world to see the famous glow worms.The small museum there informed us that they are actually not worms, but little insects that have bioluminescence. As soon as the biochemical explanations started to be explored I clamped my hands over my ears and ignored any and all biochemistry.I do enough of that during the week to have to be force fed it during the weekend.

At first this "black water rafting" (which is essentially white water rafting, but in the dark and in a cave) did not seem all that adventurous, unless you count the adventure that is trying to get into a sopping wet wetsuit, cause that was F-U-N fun.After donning a very flattering wet suit, we got inner tubes and started the ice cold journey into the natural caves.Luckily this weekend was the first fine weekend we had had in a long time in New Zealand, so the water level was not at a dangerous height.

It is a strange sensation, floating down a dark river with no knowledge of what is in front of you, trusting that there is not some horrible drop, or wall, that you may hit.We had headlamps of course, but for the most part we drifted silently (and sometimes not so silently) along in the pitch blackness, where nothing, save the pearly blue lights of the glow worms are visible.Every once and a while the caves would open up into a huge cavern and the worms above would number in the thousands, looking like an accidental sky.It really is something you must experience to get the full effect of. ..but then again, that could be true of anything.

After a night at a farm/hostel, we made our way back to Auckland the next day, stopping at a popular rock climbing area, Frogget.The rocks were amazing, though very sharp and jagged on the hands.We climbed for a few hours and started to just explore the area. It seemed like this landscape, which like everything else in New Zealand was in the middle of some farmland, could have been plucked out of a fantasy novel.

And now, aside from end of the year trips after finals, I am faced with simply exploring Auckland in more detail, and of course studying for my exams and getting through the last few weeks of classes, which seem to be creeping by quickly.