Waitomo was a short drive and we decided to stay in Top10 one more night so that we can camp without power the next day. When we reached, the first thing they recommended was the Huhu cafe right beside; and a random couple that was also checking in gave a 6 out of 5 stars for the restaurant after their recent meal there. We wanted to cook our seafood, which expired on the night; but we had to try out this amazing cafe and so we did! Ordered two of their recommended mains: lamb shoulder rack and scotch fillet steak, along with the waitress' recommendation of a sides, the buttermilk fried chicken. The dishes were all delicious but the hype prior to our dinner was probably overly exaggerated. Still, would recommend people to this cafe if they're in the vicinity (and sacrifice their ideas to cook).
When it's hot, you huhu the food before you eat
Ok la really quite good
We still did cook though, albeit a small 1.5 person portion (which is also why we only ordered two mains at Huhu). Seafood pasta was alright, seafood wasn't as tasty since they aren't as fresh, went too light on salt and white wine so there wasn't much taste but a blend dinner isn't exactly a bad one considering the heavy ones we had the past few nights.
Looks good hor haha
Headed back to our van and it's time for a sweet dream...
Woke up to a UFO-cloud the next morning
Next morning was more cooking: beef stew with Mee goreng!
Super tasty somehow
And then we're off to the world famous Waitomo cave! Wai means water, and tomo means hole, so the area is literally filled with waterhole (water falling through the holes into caves). The cave was slightly disappointing; we just went two rounds on the boat around the main glowworm area. Though the glowworms are indeed spectacular; felt like we were in the galaxy! But the 45-min guided tour was really kinda underwhelming.
Since we can't snap the glowworms, this is the only photo evidence of our "adventure"... But the real one is up next!
We then went over to the next cave, the Ruakuri cave for our Black Water Rafting adventure! Carrying out tubes around and braving the cave's water current; jumping off waterfalls while landing on our tube in our butt and searching for our way out in the dark, exhilarating and super proud of Ms Blur for conquering it alongside me (though she almost cried at the first trial jump when the water got all over her). But yep, if there's only three hours to spent here in Waitomo, I'd recommend skipping the "world famous" Waitomo cave for the Black Labyrinth adventure by the Legendary Black Water Rafting company. Wasn't that tiring for us guys but the girls were exhausted. The complimentary hot tomato soup and toasted bagel at the end were such a comforting treat after a cold 2.5 hours.
Also no photo cos it was a wet affair so here is the aftermath. All looking more alive than we really were
And this revitalised us!
And then we left for Auckland with two days to spare, and decided to rest somewhere near the economic capital, while we'll Chiong for the Northland the next day. But before that, a mishap occured: our stove cover glass broke when the garlic chilli bottle fell off the cabinet (and surprisingly not broken) to shatter the stove top glass. Nothing much we can do so we continued off to our camping ground for the night: a carpark beside a stadium. Dinner and some chilling as usual ended the night.
Also, a peculiar system they have here to control traffic flow hahaha
