There are about 300 caves in Waitomo, according to our guide. We only visited two of them because they are the public ones, the rest are in private land. The first cave we went to was Aranui Cave, a limestone type with lots of stalactites and stalagmites. It was not a spectacular cave and the only reason we took the time because we bought a 'combo deal'. Two caves for $ 40 per person instead of $ 24 per cave per person. After all the trouble of driving 3 hours, half-an-hour just going through downtown of Hamilton, New Zealand, a city on the way to Waitomo, why did we want to be 'cheap'? :-). After all, Mother Nature's creation is much better than Leonardo Da Vinci's, isn't it? He might take a few years to paint one faded painting, the Aranui Cave was formed after thousand of years. The main tourist attraction was the Glowworm Cave. They say that the worm is unique to New Zealand. It is the larval stage of a two-winged insect that emits a light to attract its food. This cave was discovered by a Maori chief and his English buddy in 1887 when they went canoeing by the river near the cave. Too bad that I only discovered moose droppings when I went canoeing, else I would be as famous as those guys. "Was it worth the time?," you asked. Slightly better than when Cecilia and I saw The Last Supper in Milan because we had to walk for quite a distance before we boarded a giant aluminium canoe to go close to where the glowworm had an exhibition on the cave's ceiling. In Milan's Cenacolo Vinciano, you just walk a few metres to get to the ex-dining room with Da Vinci's painting. When the canoe started to move around the bend, everything was dark, so that the light from the worm could be seen more spectacularly. The canoe only went for a few metres, back and forth along a fixed railing that the guide used. Not bad for a day trip.

"What do you think of the North Island?," our host AB who was born in Wellington asked us upon our return. "We saw more cows than people but the roads were pretty good," I said. Yes, though after Hamilton the road became narrow, it was well paved. They could build more passing lanes and rest areas but these days I could stand longer drive without the need to water the grass (read: my hobby to pee on the road side and at beaver dam on canoe trips). Actually we saw more students than cows at Waitomo Glowworm Cave. They were Japanese high school students, 5 buses all together in their school uniform. I was told by my guide that indeed it was one of their school outings while in New Zealand. They pay NZ$ 25K for a one year 'farm stay' program and I am not joking. They stay in the farm including learning how to produce moo juice or how to milk a cow. Aren't the Japs amazing? Even Tuti and Amir in my Indonesian grammar book only watched their grandpa's cow being milked when they visited granny's farm. No wonder we all buy Japanese things these days and in the future perhaps 'moo juice' from Japan :-).

As I mentioned earlier, because of the weather, after we went to Waitomo we didn't venture to go outside Auckland anymore. We spent the rest of the days with our Indonesian friends, especially the newcomers to Auckland. Even though it was relatively easy for them to get New Zealand's permanent resident visa, finding job is a different story. In my opinion, this problem is compounded by the fact that in Indonesia, they already had good jobs and then, because New Zealand is close to Indonesia, they didn't 'burn their bridges'. This is a term I used to convince my fellow immigrants, only if they could forget to go back to their homeland (the nice things they were able to do or have there), will they feel good in their new countries, no matter where they settle. It has been proven from time to time. Whenever I met people that still have 'bridges', they always had complaints about their new place to live. They forgot that Utopia is only in the book and there's no paradise on earth except at Killarney Lake or Algonquin Park in the fall season :-). Australia and New Zealand's first settlers would never think of going back home if they couldn't find jobs. That's the difference between the immigrants a hundred years ago and in AD 2002.

Thanks to all the prayers and blessings from you all, the gale force wind in the evening prior to our departure from Auckland subsided and we were able to leave. But ... the plane had a special route. Instead of going direct to Melbourne as scheduled, it had to fly to Wellington first at the south end of the North Island to pick stranded passengers from the previous night. I considered that a nice side trip because we had the opportunity to catch more geography or scenery of New Zealand even though from above. The more south you go, the more rugged is the country. Our flight to Melbourne then arrived 2 hours later than scheduled. We were happy when we met L, Cecilia's niece who picked us at the airport and learned that she was wise enough to call Qantas prior to going to the airport. The weather in Melbourne was awesome and it stayed that way through-out our stay. I will tell you more about the city and our Melbourne experiences in the next episode. Till then my friends, bye for now.