Birthday month!

we are having a lot of fun getting ready for the twins - shopping up a storm, reading about twins and talk talk talking about twins. but we do feel a little bit like this is the only topic we seem to discuss these days....which is why we are so excited about my upcoming birthday weekend away.

josh is the materialistic one in our family, and loves nothing more than getting STUFF for his bday. whereas i've always been about the EXPERIENCES. don't get me wrong, i love "stuff" too, but i find pressies a little anti-climatic after a few hours. so every year, we either go snowboarding for my birthday, or we head to Rotorua and spend the weekend relaxing in the hot pools. however, this year, i can't do either of those things....so i had to really get my thinking cap on to figure out what we can do instead.

and now it's all getting booked! we are heading to Waitomo, which is about 2 hours away. i've booked us into a backpackers for the friday night, and then a boutique bed and breakfast on saturday (my actual bday). and apparently their breakfasts are legendary. i'm excited.  and we are checking out the glow worm caves, which we've done before. but we've only ever done the 'black water rafting' version, which was awesome by the way; we abseiled down into the cave, walked in pitch black, claustraphobic paths and then went whizzing by on a flying fox before jumping into the water with a back inner tyre tube (and very thick wetsuits)...and then proceeded through the caves on these tubes, checking out a local eel (just the one), testing the acoustics of the cave and leaning back and gazing at the glow worms.

this time around, we are doing the more serene tours. one is a boat tour of a cave, the second has an amazing spiral staircase and the third is more about the stalagmites and stalactites. oh and we are also going to squeeze in a trip to "the kiwi house" which is awesome as i've never actually seen a kiwi before!

Joshy just emailed me the itinerary and it looks fantastic *Squeeeeeee!!!!* (that's my excited sound):

now for the caves..
Sat plan(I've booked it in without paying coz you can do that and pay on arrival)
7:30am wake up(you take quite a while to get ready.. I love you but its true.. so I've given you an hour)
8:30 breakfast.
9am check out of back packers
10am -  at the Ruakuri Cave (We need to be at the glow worm cave at 930am for pick up with a tour bus guided tour.(all included in package) That goes for 2 hours so ends at 12pm)
12pm till 145pm - Break for a nice lunch which takes us up to 12:45pm then we head to Otorohanga(which on there website is 15min from glow-worm cave) so we get there at 1pm. ($20 each on entry to park) look around for 20min(1:20pm) and get ready for the kiwi feeding at 1:30pm.
Have just rung them. We don't have to book. There is definitely a feeding at 1:30pm and we will see 4 kiwi!!
we hang at Otorohanga for an hour or so(we leave at 3:40pm to be exact) (Im sure you'll want a snack or a cup of tea in the time before we leave)

Aranui Cave at 3pm (drive there our selfs. That goes for roughly 45min. 5min to get back.)
Then the glow worm cave at 4pm(I reckon this would be the pretiest so I saved it till last)
cool... all sorted and booked!
Happy?
love love love


Some links in case anyone is inspired to travel around NZ:

The B&B we will be staying in on Sat 21st July:   http://www.abseilinn.co.nz/the-rooms/the-bush-room/ 
The Waitomo Caves Triple Combo:  http://www.waitomo.com/ruakuri-aranui-waitomo-combo.aspx
The Kiwi House:  http://www.kiwihouse.org.nz/eco-tour_self-guided.html