There was one thing on the New Zealand Tourist Checklist that was just screaming out at me above all else. I wasn’t too bothered by sky-diving, bungee jumping, water skiing or walking a glacier (next time, maybe) but visiting the glowworm caves of Waitomo just had to be done, especially as I’d been there before as a wee baby in the 70s and just about remembered it.

This was probably the most touristy thing I did (and this has been a pretty touristy holiday by my standards) but it was worth it. They could have ramped up the tacky to the nth degree and it would still have been wonderful because the caves are fantastic.

There’s a number of different caves to visit but we went for a two-cave combo. First was the Aranui Cave, a mile or so from the main drag and a less popular visit as it doesn’t have the glowing bugs. This, I think, was the best cave to spend time is as the guide was low-key and informative and the crowds much smaller. Loads of limestone stalactites and mites with lighting that, apparently, was well overdue for replacing but I felt added something to the experience. Photos were taken giving the Gorillapod it’s first real test and I was pretty pleased with the results.

We then did the Glow Worm cave along with everyone else and the most corny and bouncy guide imaginable. But it didn’t matter. Glow worms really are magical and the final boat trip, floating silently through the darkness lit only by the thousands of points of blue light hanging from the ceiling, was worth every penny. Photos weren’t allowed in this cave, which was a shame, as the flash makes the worms uncomfortable. But no regrets there.

One thing that struck me while I was in there is there’s no such thing as “natural light” in a cave. You only see them under artificial conditions so you never see them as nature intended for nature had no such intent. So whoever decided where the lights would go pretty much defined how the caves would be perceived for a generation. Hmm…

After the fantastic Waimangu Valley we stopped off in Rotorua for an hour on the way back to Hamilton. Wikipedia sez: “Rotorua is nicknamed Sulphur City, because of the aforementioned thermal activity. The sulphur gives off an odour unique to Rotorua that adds to the visitor experience.” In other words the whole place stinks of rotten eggs and farts.

Rotorua is known by some as “Roto Vegas” as it’s apparently the most blatantly touristy town in the country. Indeed, the heritage there all seems to be about the history of tourism in the area from the first time people traveled to soak in the hot springs and mud pools. While this is still a major part of the town it’s also got a vibe that, qyite frankly, I didn’t like and I felt my misanthropy rising somewhat. It was probably the banner outside a hotel promising a Maori dinner and show that did it. The whole place had that air of California, and not the good bits of California either.

But, being New Zealand, it couldn’t help but be nice in places. We parked up by the museum…

…and went for a walk along the sulphur flats. Here there were mudpools and hot springs that turned the water a milky white, like someone had poured a load of chalk into the lake and mixed it up. The birds loved it so I got out the long lens and pretended I was an ornithologist. New Zealand does that to you.

But yeah, I wouldn’t recommend Rotorua as a place to spend any time. Not only is it kinda over-commercialized (and you can get a good volcanic bath elsewhere) but it smells awful.

Photos from Rotorua are here.

Another tick on the New Zealand tourist checklist. Mudpools!

Just north of Taupo on the way to the Waimangu Valley. 11 gloopy photos are here.

Sunday saw us bundle into the “truck” and head off to Lake Taupo in one of the many volcanic regions of New Zealand. As I discovered at the Auckland Museum, NZ is pretty much made of volcanoes what it with being on a subduction zone where one tectonic plate slides under another to be turned back into molten rock (which, in turn, pops out of the earth in the middle of the ocean). This area was renound for its hot springs which, as I discovered, mean bits of the hills look like this:

and there are holes like this in the earth:

where water, heated underground by lava, steams into the air. It’s impressive in the summer but in the winter it’s apparently insane. I particularly noted how while some of the hot springs were in conservation areas those that popped up in residential bits were treated in much the same way we might treat a small stream or bog, which makes sense I guess. When the remarkable is all around you it quickly becomes the mundane.

We were staying at the very satisfactory, cheap and quite lovely Tokaanu Lodge Motel where for a reasonable fee you got a pretty spacious, well, house really, and access to their private mineral pools which were quite, quite lovely. We would recommend them.

The owner, name of Blue, took us out on his boat for another reasonable fee and let us drive (drive? Is that right?) it. Here’s a photo of me at the helm, taken by mother.

I drived a bote! It were funs!

The next day was spent up mountain, and I’ll get to that in the next post, and after that we left Taupo, stopping briefly to say farewell to this lovely, clear lake.

Here are my photos taken on and around Lake Taupo.