The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

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Hahei, Raglan, and the Waitomo Caves

(Tree Huggers, Surfers, and a Larvae with glowing poop)

Hahei

As we headed east towards Hahei on the Coromandel Peninsula, the first thing I noticed was that this was going to be nothing like Australia. Once out of the city, I couldn't stop staring out the window. The landscape was amazing! Lush, green hills sloped all around with farmland and a few scattered houses. Roads were lined with fern trees, keeping the soil on the sides of the hills from landsliding on the "highways." Now I say "highways", only because New Zealand's highway system is a fairly simple structure. It consists of just under 100 roads on both the North and South islands with a speed limit of 100 km/hr. Most of their bridges consist of one-way bridges, where signs signify which direction should give way. These bridges made me a bit nervous when we would encounter another car and play chicken. Lucky for us, our charter bus won the who's bigger contest.

As we got to Hahei, we stopped at an scenic cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The view was amazing! The smell of salt water waves coming from an amazingly clean, clear blue water with small volcanic islands with green vegetation sprouting all around off the coast. North of our location, behind some inlets and cliffs of white rocks, was cathedral cove, our destination for the day. Cathedral Cove was an amazing scenic spot on the beach, 1 hour hike away from our accommodation. Some of us decided to hike, while others took the guided Kayak tour, complete with afternoon tea and coffee on the beach. During my hike, I noticed some interesting flora scattered around the hiking path. I also had noticed these plants around the cliffs from the bus as we drove by the coast. This tall grass, called the toetoe, are one of 4 species found native in New Zealand. These large duster-like plumes, would sometimes reach as high 20 feet.

As we got closer to Cathedral cove, we passed a few kissing gates. Kissing gates are popular in the United Kingdom on walking paths between fields, designed to keep the animals in or out. As my English friends explained, the name might have derived from the first person demanding a kiss from the following person in order for them to be allowed through, or it was just because the gates, swung open to "kiss" each gate before you could squeeze through. Finally after another tiring hike, we arrived at Cathedral Cove. This amazing beach was surrounded by rock formations worthy of a few photos. Good thing I had my camera. As we walked onto the cool sand, the first thing we noticed was the kayakers had not only beaten us, but were just leaving after there afternoon refreshments. Once we got a chance to walk around, we noticed some cool deep caves, pillar rock formations 5 feet off the beach, amazing old trees flowing onto the sand, and of course the large, Cathedral Cove cave itself, connecting this area to another on the other side. After a few walks around the area, we decided to quickly walk back to the beach to watch the sunset. That night we did a group BBQ and got to know our fellow Stray bus travelers. After dinner, we even got a taste of Rugby at the local fire station, as New Zealand took on Australia in a annual rivalry match. A nice start, to a memorable and upcoming 16 more days.

We headed out early that morning after I heated up some left over BBQ sausage and a Nutella toast breakfast. If I didn't mention this before, I LOVE Nutella. What a wonderful breakfast toast spread, rivaling peanut butter in my opinion. This chocolate, hazelnut spread can go on toast, crackers, ice cream, or whatever you may want. Anywho, we hit the road again, only to stop at a quick scenic lookout gazebo at the top of a very steep hill as well as stopping to hug a very large and old Kauri tree.

Raglan

Raglan is a small community on the west coast of the north island and is known for it’s beautiful coastal views and consistent surfing conditions. As we headed over the countryside from Hahei, I got a chance to meet the other travelers on the bus. Similar to Australia, most were between 19 and 35 years old and had traveled from Europe. Lucy, Matt, David, Claire, Catherine, Kat, Ollie, Clodha, Maria, and Andrea. Like most backpackers, they were away from their homes for at least 6 months to a year. They were not only traveling in New Zealand but were visiting other areas nearby such as Fiji, Singapore, Australia, and Thailand. Most had bought an Round the World Ticket, which allows you to travel multiple times as long as you’re traveling in the same direction. Every time I talked another traveler about their plans or recent stops, made me wish I had broadened my trip to see more then just Australia and New Zealand.

As Raglan quickly approached, Golem asked which us would like to try surfing lessons. After a few had decided to surf, the rest of us were anxious to take some of the free hikes. Apparently the Karioi Lodge was right against the mountains and had hiking trails running all around it. After a quick stop at a scenic overlook, we headed up the hill on a small dirt road. At the top of the road, past a dirt wall with some glowworms, was the front desk cabin and a friendly welcome. We were shown around the area, starting behind the check in cabin through tree covered lit paths, were additional buildings laid up against the hills. Kitchens, bathrooms, multiple room units, large common hangout with pool table and collection of movies, and even an outdoor sauna. This was truly a hidden paradise.

We got our room assignments, mine directly next to a hammock, and proceeded to get settled in before our big hike. In addition to the hike, Golem was highly promoting a ride, beyond the front desk, up the path, and between the trees, called the Flying Fox. Claire and I were the first to be ready for the hike and met at this greatly anticipated ride. When we got there, a 100ft long wire with a hanging pulley and seat told me this was a zip line. Claire took charge and decided to go first. We dragged the seat up to the top of the gentle slopping hill to the starting platform. Claire grabbed on, sat down, said it was nice to know me, and took off flying down the suspended wire. As she approached the end, a rubber stopper abruptly yanked the rope, seat, and Claire into the air. Luckily Claire had a good grip on the rope and it came to a stop where we had found it. She brought it up to me and I quickly jumped on to repeat the exciting trip down. We tried it a few more times as other people scurried up from the cabins after hearing our laughter. After a group rotation, we set off on our hike for a marked 2 hour looping trail. As the 7 of us quickly found out, the hike took a bit longer then we expected, but we managed to get to the top and back in 3 hours while seeing some amazing views and only incurring a few slips and falls.

That night’s dinner was another group meal, with Lucy in charge of a fresh alfredo sauce made for the pasta and vegetables that Golem was preparing. 3 huge serving bowls were made and we stuffed our faces, family style, for another wonderful group meal at 7 dollars each. Only one odd addition to the pasta that I hadn’t ever seen before, was hard boiled eggs, cut up and placed around the edge of the pasta. Although not horrible, I would probably leave those out of my next pasta concoction. A few games of pool, some entries into my journal, a quick run down to view the stars and glowworms, and it was off to bed. What are glowworms?

Waitomo Caves:

The Waitomo Caves were not too far away from Raglan and were something that I had read about in my travel books. With many different sizes of caves in the area, we had the choice to purchase 1 of 5 cave tours. One tour included a 400 foot abseil, or rappel as Americans call it. Asking around, I choose the most popular one called the Haggis Honking Holes cave tour, which consisted of 4 small abseils, 4 hours of caving, and some rock climbing towards the end of the expedition. We broke off into groups of 4, with Lucy and Anthony joining me as we suited up into our non-sexy wet suits, yellow helmets with front lights, and rubber boots. With harness gear attached and a quick rappelling lesson, we were off to the caves to get lost.

Over the next 3 hours we were underground like moles. We launched down huge rappels under waterfalls, dropped down into complete dark caves with knee high freezing water, saw hundreds of glowworms inches from our heads, and crawled on our hands and knees through tight claustrophobic tunnels. The tour guides were very knowledgeable and stopped regularly to point out specific cave features, talk about the history of the caves, and even turn our lights off for 5 minutes to stare at the glowworms hanging above. Glowworms are insect larvae, which glow through bioluminescence. Although mistakenly called worms, these popular larvae are a main attraction to the area. During darkness, their abdomen can be seen glowing as a result of a chemical reaction of their waste product. This light attracts other prey into their threads or silk snares that they drop down to stun and entangle their dinner. Thousands can be seen hanging from the cave ceiling for their 6 to 12 month larval stage, until they hatch and turn into an adult fly. These flies then mate, lay eggs, and the process repeats itself.

After a few climbs and some photo ops, we were starting to head back towards the surface. At one last stop, we were told the origin of the cave name and got to howl or honk in a hole. We proceeded to stick our head into a dome shaped cone of calcium carbonate making deep humming noises as loud as possible, resulting in a very amplified reverb. We also concluded that our guide also wanted to see if our heads would stuck in the cone as each of us would then be allowed to kick the said participant in the rear until they could wiggle out. Finally we were up a long ladder and out of the cave. We rinsed off our gear and waited for the remaining groups to surface. Unfortunately the tour group had a policy against personal cameras being taken in, so the only photos were the purchased ones by our guide.

We packed up our things and headed off to the infamous smell of Rotorua. But before we left Waitomo, we stopped at a very interesting rabbit habitat. These German Angora Rabbits grow their fur very fast. They then have to be shaved every 3 months or they can overheat and die. A few of these huge, fluffy looking rabbits were on display, waiting for their routine sheering. The owner proceeded to sheer one as she talked about the process and how the rabbit was completely comfortable. Although we were told that this sheering was mandatory for each rabbit, the device that held the rabbits during their haircut seemed a bit like a medieval torture device. The store and sheering area was also packed with sweaters, scarves, shirts, and bags of angora fur for purchase. Afterwards we were allowed to pet the rabbits and even take some photos with them. Golem even fooled a few of us to ask the owner to try some of their rabbit soup.

Next up: Rotorua, the Tongariro Crossing, and Wellington.

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Comments

[Mike (Crusher)]

Adventure in Glowworms
Nathan, your adventures keep getting better and better. Just how much fun did you have in New Zealand anyway? Crawling around in caves, hiking, taking great pictures and shearing the bunnies....I mean, c'mon! Way too much fun. Great pictures. Loved the Hahei Beach shot!