Day 16 - The Day of the Glowworms

​I’m not going to lie - I was not thrilled when my alarm clock went off this morning. I am still battling the LLL and definitely wanted some more sleep! Still, a good breakfast helped, and by the time we reached our first stop for the day - Bridal Veil Falls - I was feeling chirpier. 

I decided not to test my lungs by doing the walk to the bottom of the falls, but instead got some great photos from the viewing platform. 

We then drove to Waitomo Caves. I haven’t really commented on the amazing scenery that we are driving through every day on the North Island. It is mile upon mile of green hills. I have honestly never experienced anything like it. 

After a quick lunch at Waitomo, some of us went into the caves. The caves themselves were very cool - they are limestone caves with super impressive stalagmites and stalactites. The acoustics are also famous, and we were very lucky that our professional singer, Fionoulla, gave a short rendition of Ave Maria in the caves! 

 The main attractions of the caves are the glowworms though. I can now tell you a LOT about glow-worms - for example, they should really be called glow-maggots; they have a life expectancy of about nine months; and the light is to attract insects that then get caught in their ‘fishing lines’ and are eaten by the glow-worms. The end of the tour involved a short boat-ride under thousands of glow-worms in the caves. It was pretty special. I don’t have photos of this, as photography is not allowed in the caves, in order to protect the glowworms, but here is the boat we were on!

Over the course of our journey on towards Rotatua, we made two main stops. Firstly, at a suspension bridge that gave great views of the Waikato River and a hydroelectric power station.

Secondly, we had a walk along the Te Waihou walkway at Waikato, to see the beautiful blue springs. I hope these photos kind of do it justice. I did also find a geocache here!

We rolled into Rotarua in the late afternoon and had a couple of hours to get some dinner and have some downtime before heading back out. I was relieved to have a bit of quiet time to myself, and enjoyed a nice meal nearby. It was fish again, but it feels fitting in an island country!

We had a quick driving tour of a couple of parts of Rotarua, most notably the Government Gardens, before heading into the forest into an area Kreig, our guide, knows to be particularly good for glowworms. We stayed in the forest as the sun settled, and watched more and more glowworms light up. As glowworms will strengthen their lights if there are vibrations in the air, Kreig had also asked Fionoulla to sing. She sang ‘You’ll never walk alone’, and it was quite something to see the lights around us glow more brightly as she sang.

Our final stop for the day was then a tree-top walk in the redwood forest. 22 platforms have been set up in the trees (in such as way so the trees are not damaged), at heights of between six and twelve metres, and one can walk across the 23 bridges. At night, the forest is beautifully lit up with lanterns, making for quite a special experience.

As you can probably tell, it has been a full-on day. We have seen SO much, but I am cream-crackered, so very grateful that I get a bit of a lie-in tomorrow as I am going to catch up with Jane and Tony again, who are also in Rotarua.