September 12 - 15 2008
BED & BREAKFAST - WAITOMO
Our weekend together started with staying at a wonderful B&B on Friday night. It had a fantastic view of the surrounding hills and a garden area that all gardens would die for. Take a look at the Rhododendrum. They grow like trees in New Zealand. The climate is just perfect for them. The hostess of the B&B said that she keeps on cutting it down but cannot keep up with its growth. This B&B is a place that we would highly recomment to all travellers.
WAITOMO (WHY-TOE-MO) CAVES - THE SPELLBOUND TOUR
Only 12 people at a time are allowed on the tour. This is a picture of our tour group and the tour guide was kind enough to take pictures of us.
BOAT TOUR THROUGH THE FIRST CAVE - GLOWWORM CAVE
The first cave that we went through was the one filled with "Glowworms". Glowworms are just that, worms that glow. Once in the boat we all turned off our lights and started into the cave via the boat in total darkness. The darkness did not last long for once your eyes get adjusted to the dark you start seeing the wonderful sight of the "Glowworms".
DENSLEY PACKED GLOWWORMS ON THE CEILING OF THE CAVE
Pictures taken from the website Glowworms larva & threads
It is unbelievable to see these. The only comparison that we can think of is that of the "Milky Way". Thousands and thousands of glowworms. A truly magnificent sight to see.
The "Glowworm Cave" was chosen for Sir David Attenborough's recent "Life in the Undergrowth" and "Planet Earth" series.
SECOND CAVE - "THE CAVE OF THE SPIRIT"
The second cave is one that we walked through. The pictures just do not give it justice. I appologize for the quality of the photos but I am still trying to figure out how to work a few things with the camera.
This picture on the left has bones of a very old primitive bird that was discovered.
The picture on the right is our group at the "cathedral" area of the cave. It is a HUGE cathedral style opening in the cave.
The picture on the right is "guess who"? We are at the opening of the cave. Nice guide we had for he was more than happy to take pictures of whoever and of whatever the tour group wanted.
OUR BUSH WALK
After the two caves we went and had a bit of lunch and decided to take our tour guides suggestion and take in a bush walk. I was OK with this for New Zealand has no natural preditors. No poisonous snakes or spiders. The walk was estimated to take 30 minutes but it took us much longer for we had to stop and explore our own caves that we found and take many pictures. It was well worth the walk.
Left: A view of the countryside before we went on our walk.
Right: The route we took on our walk.
Left: Bryan doing some of his own cave exploring.
Right: " TARZAN" - The vines were incredibly thick.
Left: The ferns in New Zealand were super huge!
Right: Us having the time of our life!
This concludes the caves and our bush walk. The next on the agenda is the awesome natural goethermal places - Hell's Gate - that we saw along with mud baths etc.
Keep checking the blog for it should be up within a few days. Take care everyone and I hope you enjoyed the pictures.
All Our Love Bryan & Maureen
