4/6/18
Drove to Waitamo today. On the way we stopped at a nice viewpoint of the volcanoes we had hiked past (and up) the day before. The drive was through rolling green hills, and this is where they filmed the Shire from the Lord of the Rings. In Waitamo we quickly booked a glowworm tour, then drove to Te Kuiti to check out the sheep sheering championship that was going on. Crazy how fast they can sheer a sheep. The fastest we saw was something like 18 seconds.
Back in Waitamo, our tour visited 2 caves. The first was a wet cave (Spellbound, featured in 2 BBC films, one with Sir David Attenborough). In Spellbound, we boarded a raft and floated through a galaxy of bright blue glowing glow bugs. Millions!! It's hard to describe how magical. There were so many that they lit a pitch black cave with enough light that you could see the water reflection, the cave walls, and each other. Pure Magic! It felt like being in a cluster of stars. It really has to be one of the coolest and most magical things I've seen.
Glowworms aren't actually worms, but they are the larval stage of a small gnat called the fungal gnat fly. They create little silk strings that they hang from the ceiling of caves. The glowing attracts insects that get stuck in the mucus of the webs, which the glowworms then eat for food.
The dry cave was also nice with some cool cave formations, a few glow worms, and a moa (extinct bird similar to an emu) skeleton. Drove through Auckland at the end of rush hour and camped in Waipu
4/7/18
We had camped near Waipu caves, so in the morning we explored them. We walked through a creek (w/eels) in the cave. There were lots of big rooms and cool cave passages, and it was fun to wade through the water (though nerve wracking for Elisha with the eels). Because they were wet caves, there were some really nice glow worms.
After our caving adventure, we drove to Kaitaia where we had a fish n chips lunch. We then drove to the start of 90 mile beach, which is this 90 mile (actually 90 km) beach that you can drive on, but you need to be aware of quicksand and rogue waves. Our insurance didn't cover it, so we didn't drive it. Instead we took the normal road to Cape Reinga, the northernmost point of New Zealand. From here we watched the sunset from atop a cliff overlooking the ocean and adjacent to a lighthouse. That night we camped at Tapotupotu bay on the beach, from where we could hear the surf as we went to bed
Drove to Waitamo today. On the way we stopped at a nice viewpoint of the volcanoes we had hiked past (and up) the day before. The drive was through rolling green hills, and this is where they filmed the Shire from the Lord of the Rings. In Waitamo we quickly booked a glowworm tour, then drove to Te Kuiti to check out the sheep sheering championship that was going on. Crazy how fast they can sheer a sheep. The fastest we saw was something like 18 seconds.
Back in Waitamo, our tour visited 2 caves. The first was a wet cave (Spellbound, featured in 2 BBC films, one with Sir David Attenborough). In Spellbound, we boarded a raft and floated through a galaxy of bright blue glowing glow bugs. Millions!! It's hard to describe how magical. There were so many that they lit a pitch black cave with enough light that you could see the water reflection, the cave walls, and each other. Pure Magic! It felt like being in a cluster of stars. It really has to be one of the coolest and most magical things I've seen.
Glowworms aren't actually worms, but they are the larval stage of a small gnat called the fungal gnat fly. They create little silk strings that they hang from the ceiling of caves. The glowing attracts insects that get stuck in the mucus of the webs, which the glowworms then eat for food.
The dry cave was also nice with some cool cave formations, a few glow worms, and a moa (extinct bird similar to an emu) skeleton. Drove through Auckland at the end of rush hour and camped in Waipu
4/7/18
We had camped near Waipu caves, so in the morning we explored them. We walked through a creek (w/eels) in the cave. There were lots of big rooms and cool cave passages, and it was fun to wade through the water (though nerve wracking for Elisha with the eels). Because they were wet caves, there were some really nice glow worms.
After our caving adventure, we drove to Kaitaia where we had a fish n chips lunch. We then drove to the start of 90 mile beach, which is this 90 mile (actually 90 km) beach that you can drive on, but you need to be aware of quicksand and rogue waves. Our insurance didn't cover it, so we didn't drive it. Instead we took the normal road to Cape Reinga, the northernmost point of New Zealand. From here we watched the sunset from atop a cliff overlooking the ocean and adjacent to a lighthouse. That night we camped at Tapotupotu bay on the beach, from where we could hear the surf as we went to bed
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