Glow Worms!
- Trevor Clark
- Apr 3, 2024
- 2 min read
We have moved over east to Waitomo, so we can visit the famous glow worm caves. Our camp site was absolutely lovely and only a 10 minute walk from the caves entrance.
So, on arrival we lunched and drank. We walked to the caves and were informed our first tour was at a cave 7 minutes drive away. DOH! Luckily, they found us a shuttle bus to transport us just in time and we ended up doing two great tours of the caves. The first tour was with a guide who must have been celebrating his 4 millionth tour, and he lost enthusiasm after the first two thousand tours. It was as much as I could do to stop myself becoming a cave dwelling vampire bat and biting him in the jugular. By contrast, our second guide was excellent, and the glow worms are an exceptional experience.
When you get to the bottom of the cave complex, you get on a boat and float in complete darkness and silence through the caverns, watching the thousands of glowing glow worms on the roof. Spectacular, but it was not permitted to take photographs.
The family who had brought their young son wearing a pair of flashing shoes and found the concept of silence an impossibility, tried their hardest to ruin the atmosphere for everyone, but fortunately failed. I think they failed, or they may have just been pushed out of the boat by other disgruntled tourists.
We left Waitomo and headed north onto the Coromandel Peninsula. Our camp here was at Hahei Beach. This was a beautiful location.
Hahei was a small settlement of wealthy holiday or retirement homes. The less well off owned their own tractor, to tow their boat to the sea. The better off had boats with retractable wheels, which they drove out of the sea and back to their house.
We did a rib boat tour to see the main features of the coast and Cathedral Cove, the biggest tourist draw in the area. This was a lot of fun and again we saw some amazing features along the coast.
Another beach in this area was Hot Beach. This unfortunately did not live up to its name. We had heard that you could dig your own personal hot tub on the beach due to rising thermal spring water. However, this can only be done at low tide in one particular area, so we ended up with only the lovely setting to enjoy.
We left Hahei and headed for Auckland Airport. This would be the end to our New Zealand adventure and the start of our Australian one. I just had one further treat for Sue before we left. A service centre on the outskirts of Auckland. No sooner than we had ordered our drinks, than five New Zealand workmen arrived, all wearing high viz vests and steel capped boots. Sue didn't say a word, but the slight raise of her eye brow told me everything I needed to know.
See you all in Australia!
Lots of love,
Sue & Trev xx
Lovely photos. I also visited to glow work caves at Waitomo. I dont know what its like now but it was gloriously informal then - I just drove up a lane and a bloke wandered out of a nearby house.