Tour to Waitomo Cave & Kiwi House

Thursday, 28 February 2008
Today was a full tour day starting at 8:15 am. There are only 14 people in our tour group so it is a very nice size, plenty of room in the bus, and everyone seems very nice. Our driver and guide today was Berndt, a German who moved to NZ about 20 years ago. He was very nice and seemed to know the history of Auckland and all of NZ.
We started by driving about an hour and a half and then made a stop for “coffee.” Berndt made sure to tell us to get the coffee first, and then head to the bathrooms. The stop was a shop that sold wool goods, had ice cream and other food to buy, and of course had the bathrooms most of the bus needed. Berndt had been telling us about an ice cream made by Tip Top, called “hokey pokey” and some of the people tried it at this stop. They said it was extra sugary with a carmelized coating on top, I do not think they are going to recommend it to their friends. The wool goods were beautiful but when a wool vest is on “special” for $349 NZ (which would be about $300 US) we all thought it might be a little high for our tastes and decided to just look.
We left the stop after 20 minutes and continued on for another 1 ½ hours until we arrived at Waitomo Glow-Worm Grotto. The cave is not handicap accessible and if you have trouble climbing stairs, don’t attempt going. There is a boat ride as a small part of the tour but it is at the bottom of the cave. Dennis said it was kind of neat to see all the glow-worms hanging down by the thousands. The limestone cave also consists of numerous stalagmites and stalactites. Fairly small cave when comparing to Carlsbad so if you are expecting that you will be disappointed but it is very unique with the glow-worms. From the cave we headed to a town called Kio Kio. At this point it was lunch time and we headed to Crosshills - the home of the Robertson family. The home is a very pretty English-designed home and garden that is booked one year in advance. You cannot make individual reservations but must go only as part of a tour group. They serve a buffet of lamb and beef meat loaf, boiled potatoes, salad, bread and homemade ice cream for dessert. Sounded like a meal made for my sister, Sharon! It was actually a good meal and it gave us a chance to sit and talk with our tour mates. Crosshills is also a dairy farm - about 800 head of cattle.
After lunch we went back into Kio Kio to go to the Kiwi House. It was generally accessible after a short diversion through a separate door and then Dennis taking my chair down a series of short rise stairs (about 4 inches). Then it was a mixture of gravel or asphalt paved trails that wound around all of the displays. The Kiwi birds were interesting to see - they only come out at night so they have them in a dark room, but they were awake and so we did get to see them. The male is smaller than the female and the female gives birth to an egg the size of an Emu egg - OUCH! The Kiwi is only about 10 to 12 inches tall. But at least we can say that we got to see the infamous Kiwi - can’t come to New Zealand without seeing one.
This ended the tour and we were back in the coach (or bus) headed back to the hotel. It was a very long day as we returned to the hotel at 6:15 pm. We were all pretty tired. Dennis and I headed down to a local Chinese restaurant - the Dragon Boat. There are a lot of Chinese people in NZ - many come over to go to school and then go back to China to work in a business where they talk with English speaking customers.
It was an interesting day but a little too long for most of us - but they want you to see so many things and the tour is only 2 ½ days long. Tomorrow is another tour day so best get some sleep.
When we returned to the hotel our last bag was waiting for us - YEAH! It had decided to stay in Los Angeles a little longer.

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