Month: May 2016

Day 26: Waitomo Caves

Today was a rainy day – perfect for visiting caves! The caves in the Waitomo area are New Zealand’s most famous caves, and we decided to spend the whole day there to visit all three: Ruakuri, Aranui, and Waitomo. Our RV rental company, Britz, had a special “driver goes free” deal with the Waitomo Caves, so we got a 2-for-1 deal on our ticket fees – score!

The first cave we went to was our favorite: Ruakuri. The entrance is via a man-made tunnel with a huge spiral staircase. There is a natural entrance of course, but apparently a Maori chief is buried there, so the government created a new entrance out of respect.

Concrete entrance to the Ruakuri Cave

 

Spiral staircase and entry fountain

Not only are the cave formations really cool, but this cave also gave us our first look at glowworms! And we got a really close-up look too – we could see the little strings and beads the glowworms hang from the ceiling to catch their prey (similar to a spider-web). Actually, glowworms are not actually worms, but fly-larvae (but no one will pay to see ‘glow-maggots” –Marketing!) – the glow they produce is similar to a fire-fly, but it’s to trick other bugs trapped in the caves into thinking it’s the night sky & a way out of the cave – when the bugs fly up into the ceiling they get stuck on the strings and become dinner.

Original sign from Maori landowner protesting tours led through the burial site in the 1980s. The cave was shut down for about 20 years until the new entrance was complete in 2005.

 

Fossilized scallop shell & “The Pretties”  

 

Glowworms! Note to self: bring tripod for dark-location photography

The Aranui Cave was a dry cave (no water, means no bugs, which means no glowworms), but the formations were still very nice.

 

“Elephant ears” at the entrance to the Aranui Cave

Very long & tall stalactites & stagamites

Waitomo Cave was our least favorite cave. First of all, they have a no photos rule. Igor thinks the rule is to force tourists to buy the $40 Photo-shopped picture in the gift shop – Lindsay thinks it is to keep the tours running quickly. The place is like Disneyland, with a new group running every 30 minutes. As it is a 45min tour, each group is right on top of each other and the majority of the time is spent waiting for the previous tour group to walk-through / get on the boats. The number of glowworms is amazing – it really does look like the night sky – but the whole experience is not magical. Still worth doing, unless you can only pick one – if so, Ruakuri wins our votes.

 

Waitomo-Disneyland: long lines for the “rides”

Day 25: Lake Taupo & Rotorua

Unfortunately, the weather did not hold out for us. Luckily, Lindsay built an extra day into the North Island itinerary (when reviewing the days, we realized the scheduled skipped from Monday to Wednesday – happy accident!) so we decided to keep going North, and circle back to Tongariro later in the week when the weather improved.

Coming around the bend, with a cloudy Lake Taupo in view. World-class trout-fishing here (but we already knew that!)

This region is the Maori cultural center of New Zealand – lots of public art on display, including a “Tongariro Crossing”

We drove though Lake Taupo and went for a short walk to the Haku Falls – the North Island’s “biggest” waterfall. We assume they are talking about volume of water, not height of the falls. The place was crowded with tourists – not sure what all the fuss was about.

Huge crowds at Haku Falls

 

Kayakers going over the falls

In the afternoon, we moved on to Rotorua to visit Te Puia – a Maori cultural center & Te Whakarewarewa Thermal Valley with the largest geyser in the area.

Pohutu Geyser – a natural geyser that erupts approximately every 60-90 minutes (unlike another in the area which are “soaped” to go off at exactly 10:30AM)

 

While admiring the scenery, this random group of Chinese tourists comes up to us and asks to take a group photo – WITH US IN IT – wtf?

Maori totems start appearing in the forest as we walk closer to the cultural side of Te Puia. Next to the maere house, a storage house carved for the 1906 World Exhibition 

Details of the carved storage house

Igor exploring the old Maori village

A traditional Maori canoe, and a new totem being carved by the Te Puia Wood Carving School

 

 

Day 24: Fly Fishing

Apparently New Zealand is a trout-fisher’s paradise, so Lindsay booked us a beginner’s fly-fishing trip with Gary – a local guide from Wild Trout Adventures who met us at the Waiwhenua Farmstay Campsite, and led us up & down the river looking for rainbow trout.

Spending a morning on the river, flying fishing.

Lindsay had the first catch (a tiny 10” little thing – we let him go), while Igor’s fish was about twice the size! Of course, our teacher caught the biggest fish of the morning – a 6-pounder which he then showed us how to fillet and cook by hot smoking. Lunch & dinner for two nights – we don’t fish just for sport – we fish to eat!

Gary catching our dinner! A 6-lb. rainbow trout. 

Igor catches his first fish! A respectable size, but Igor let him go free anyways.

Lindsay holding our dinner! Gary showed us how to fillet & smoke the meat. 

 

Smoked trout – two fillets will feed us for two days!

That afternoon, we made our way to Tongariro National Park, in order to tart “New Zealand’s Best Day Hike” – the Tongariro Alpine Crossing – in the morning. However, once we arrived and tried to book the shuttle to the trailhead, we were informed that due to a rainy forecast & high winds at the summit, many companies were cancelling their tours for the next day. We went to bed with our fingers crossed for good weather.