Waitomo

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Waitomo is famous for it's caves and glowworms, but nothing else. I't been warned before going that there aren't any ATMs, but no one said that there is no shop! Luckily, the hostel sells bread by the slice and tins of beans, otherwise I would have starved!

Once I managed to get to Waitomo (even more difficult to get to that Raglan) I booked onto one of the cave tours. I couldn't be bothered with doing one of the adventure caving/tubing/abseiling ones, so I booked onto a little old lady, walk and boat one. Turned out to be a really good decision! It was with quite a new company so they weren't that busy and we walked into a cave with headlamps and everything. We had to turn them off (obviously) to see the glowworms, and while we were floating in the boats we were in complete darkness for about 30 minutes. It meant your eyes got used to the dark and we could see them really well - very strange creatures. We also got to walk in another cave (with lights this time) and see the bones of animals that had died down there. There was one Moa skeleton that had been down there for ages, and as I'd only seen them in museums before it was quite exciting.

In non-cave things to do, there really isn't much in Waitomo. I did go on the 'Waitomo walkway', which is just a walk through some fields to a little cave formation. Walking there was nice, but on the way back the farmer that owned the fields had obviously decided to release the bulls to graze. They were terrifying! They were doing the huff-huff thing they always do before they charge, but I had to go really close to them to get past (I couldn't turn back either as that field was also full of bulls). I consider myself lucky to have survived!

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Photos

The Rabbit Shearing Shed
Unfortunately I didn't get to see them shearing the angora rabbits :(

'Spellbound' picture of glowworms
None of my pictures in the caves came out well, so the company emailed some to me

Daylight!
On the way out of the cave

Beware the bull!
Seriously, they were manacing me