Day 97 - Auckland to Rotorua

  Rotorua, New Zealand
Saturday, December 8, 2007

Understandably we were both absolutely exhausted after our journey yesterday, so were unable to get up at the 8:30am alarm call. Or the 9am one. Or...

Eventually we hauled ourselves out of bed at about 9:40am, and had a frantic 20 mins of washing and packing to be off the premises before the 10am cut-off which was stated in VERY large letters on the back of our door in our hovel, I mean hostel.

Katie was 10 mins late leaving the room (as a result of pulling half her hair out trying to comb it after running out of conditioner), but managed to avoid getting charged thankfully.

We needed some breakfast, so we headed to the local convenience store and stocked up on toileteries before grabbing some quick brekkie and heading south.

Our first stop was going to be the Waitomo glow worm caves which are about 5 hours south of Auckland.

I visited the caves last time I was here, and I really liked them. It's not the most dynamic or thrilling tourist attraction in the world, but I had a good time and remember it fondly, so I convinced Katie that it was worth seeing.

The scenery on the way south was beautiful, rolling green hills which reminded Katie of home. The north island is not as scenic as the south island, but it's still very attractive.





We stopped en route to get some lunch, where I had sausages & mash (3 of the biggest sausages in the world!), which I'm ashamed to say I couldn't finish. Honestly.

The caves were just around the corner from our lunch spot, but unfortunately so was a bus of very loud and obnoxious Chinese tourists. And that was just their dress sense...



Since I was last here they've added a lot more tours that you can do; you can now abseil, raft or float into the caves, or you can visit some of the other local caves which don't have glow worms, but are apparently still worthy of some sensational adjectives in their potted descriptions!

We decided to go for the basic walking tour which was NZ$35 (about 13 quid), as we didn't have enough time for anything more fancy.

Luckily the guides decided to keep the lairy Chinese tour back from the main group, so we joined our (eccentric) guide at the entry point to the cave, and headed in.

I knew what to expect, but Katie was pleasantly surprised by the caves we walked through to get to the lower glow worm area.

We learnt a lot about the history of the caves, how they were formed, admired all the stalagmites and stalactites, and the learnt about the life cycle of the glow worms themselves.

We were soon climbing down to the lowest caves, which are where the glow worms live.

We climbed into a row boat, and slowly headed off into the pitch black. Our tour guide reached up above us for a series of ropes, which they use to silently pull the boats through the darkness.

Almost immediately we could see squillions of glow worms visible above us on the ceiling of the caves! I wish I could have taken some photos but cameras are banned in the caves, unfortunately.

We were told that the glow worms use a special chemical when they digest their food, which gives off their unique 'glow'. This 'light' is used to attract some of the many insects that are brought into the caves after dark by the breeze, following the local river.

Once inside the caves, the insects get thoroughly confused, and when they see the myriad lights above them they believe they're seeing the night sky, and fly upwards... to their death.

Unbeknown to them, the cunning little glow worms have made a series of cocoons on the ceiling of the cave, and from these cocoons they've spun very fine threads, not unlike spider webs.

These threads are sticky, so they catch the insects flying up towards them, and the glow worms then reel in their catch like fishermen, until they are chowing down on some tasty flies/mosquitos etc.

The roof of the caves is about 6ft above you but you can't see the strands, however you can see the glow worms very clearly, it's a really mind-boggling sight.

It looks just like the night sky, and the spaces between the lights even look like the branches in a forest, so you can completely understand how the insects are fooled.

The caves themselves offer the perfect conditions for the glow-worms, as they're humid (cocoons don't dry up), dark (insects can't see strands), calm (no wind, so no strands getting caught up), and with a steady supply of food being blown inside, with no way out.

After the boat made its way slowly out of the cave we climbed out into the light, and walked back to the car park.

Leaving the caves is the only chance you get to take a photo, but it's not very impressive, sorry!



Once back in the car we set off for Rotorua, which I remember being interesting if rather smelly, on account of the thermal mud pools & geysers for which the town is famous.

Under 2 hours later we could see Lake Rotorua, and a few minutes later we were in the town centre, hunting out a holiday park where we planned to stay tonight.



We chose a nice simple little cabin, and chilled out for a couple of hours, which was lovely. We bought a nice bottle of wine earlier and enjoyed that outside the cabin, where the weather was still ok, and pretty warm.

A short while later I went off to try the onsite mineral baths a few minutes walk away (which were boiling hot and had a few young girls in there when I arrived, nice work!), where I read a chapter of my Freakonomics book before realising that I was over-heating and probably smelled like a rotten egg.

We decided to go into town for dinner, and settled on an Indian place which had won all sorts of local awards. It was alright, but nowhere near as good as the one we had in the Blue Mountains.

We had a quick squiz around the town, which is generally quite bland but does have the odd nice building.



We're now catching up on the internet, and tomorrow we're planning to have a bit of mud-spa action (mmmm guess whose idea THAT is?!), look at some geysers and then head further south to Lake Taupo.

Hope all is well back home, lots of love,


Al & Katie xx