Blogs from Waitomo Caves, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 2

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Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Waitomo Caves April 28th 2015

Bonjour, Hola, Hello, Today we went to the Waitomo caves, Wai means water and Tomo means shaft or tunnel. Here they have 3 different caves to see, the glowworm cave, Ruakuri cave and Aranui cave, each with there own different qualities. The glowworm cave has amazing acoustics that even artist such as Josh Stone, Rod Stewart and Katy Perry have performed here. As it is a wet cave it has perfect conditions for glowworms, here there is a huge glowworm population. If you see the pictures in light they are small 3cm long worms but make a huge fishing line/web strand that can go to a metre long, this way they light up in the dark and midges and other insects think it’s light and fly into the web and its then dinner time. We took ... read more
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Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Waitomo Caves March 10th 2015

Départ pour quelques jours de visites du pays, premier stop aux Waitomo caves: caves réputées mondialement pour leurs formations rocheuses et leur population abondante en vers luisants. Souhaitant faire des économies et travailler notre Anglais, nous avons décidé d'opter pour la solution Airbnb. Après avoir du réserver certains lieux plus de 5 fois car les hôtes ne désirez pas recevoir aux périodes indiquées, communiquer nos CNI, nos contacts gmail et linkedin à la société Airbnb pour des "mesures de sécurité". Nous voilà enfin prêts à prendre la direction de la demeure de notre premier hôte. Maison au bord de la voie ferrée avec un accès non goudronné (oui en Nouvelle Zélande c'est fréquent), notre hôte nous a laissé les clés dans un chapeau sous le porche. Découverte des lieux et des habitants: un chat, un étudiant ... read more
Spéléologues
Touristes
Formation rocheuse

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Waitomo Caves October 12th 2014

Vandaag staat er maar één ding op de planning: Waitomo Caves Black Water Rafting experience. Samengevat: een halve dag in de wereldberoemde glowworm caves doorbrengen in een wetsuit en als enige transportmiddel een rubberen band. In het begin was ik nogal skeptisch en terughoudend, maar uiteindelijk ben ik wel blij dat ik het gedaan heb. Ruben vond het fantastisch van begin tot einde natuurlijk. We moesten door spelonken kruipen, omhoog klimmen en van watervallen (1m hoog) springen. Verder ben ik ook heel blij dat mij pas bij het verlaten van de grotten werd verteld dat ik drie uur lang tussen 'alen' (die lange, lelijke vissen) hebben gezwommen. Ben ik even blij dat ik dat niet wist op het moment zelf! Op het einde stelde de gids een race voor naar buiten. Hij had er geen rekening ... read more
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Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Waitomo Caves February 26th 2014

The next morning we left Raglan to head down to the Waitomo caves. Simon, our tour leader was dressed in a tiger onesie because it was his birthday. These caves have glow worms which has made the sites famous. They look like LED lights or stars in the roof when. All other lights have been switched off. G-Adventures booked with one particular company where you can do tubing (also known as black water rafting) or abseilling down through the caves in darkness and seeing g the glow worms glow. I chose tubing, because I kind of hurt my right wrist kayaking (maybe RSI playing up or something) so decided abseilling was not for me. So we got to Waitomo caves area. Some people were dropped off as they were doing the Spellbound tour, where you walked ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Waitomo Caves February 18th 2014

Maori language lesson for the day Wai = water Tomo = hole Waitomo = water passing through a hole On Monday (17th), Heidi and I traveled to Waitomo to explore the glow worm caves. On the way down we stopped in a small village called Pirongia for a pub lunch where we are dubbed 'Cathy and Kim' by the Maori bartender and chatted up by a friendly local. We headed out and found our hotel for a good night's sleep. We needed it because on Tuesday (18th) we survived the most commercially challenging cave adventure I could find - the Black Abyss tour offered by the Black Water Rafting Company. Basically, the tour takes you through an underwater river system using a combination of abseiling (rappelling) down a 150' hole followed by a flying fox (zip ... read more
Waitomo Walkway
Waitomo Village
Craigs List Killer Article

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Waitomo Caves December 19th 2013

Dinsdag 17 december 2013: Ook vandaag word ik door de zon wakker gebraden. Ik plak al vol zweet. In het dal hangt een mysterieus mistgordijn, prachtig. Terwijl ik me klaar maak, probeer ik me nog zoveel mogelijk voor de zon te verschuilen. Voor het vertrek Skype ik nog even met men grootmoeder. Volgens het routeboekje moet de route afhellen maar hier is niets van te merken. Ferme heuvels zijn het die klimmen tot +150m om vervolgens terug naar 20 te zakken en opnieuw te stijgen. Op de auteurs van het boekje ben ik nu slecht gezind. Gelukkig zijn de heuvels allemaal goed te doen. Terwijl het 's morgens snikheet was, krijg ik wat later enkele druppels over me heen. Later is het terug zonnig. Het landschap varieert van enkele bossen tot weidse velden. Het laatste stuk ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Waitomo Caves November 2nd 2013

So Friday was a driving day.... having to swing back in through Auckland to be able to continue heading south. The bane of my existence, the motorway, was even used just to make it worse. But before I got too settled in to the seat, it was time for a proper breakfast. Bacon and eggs?? Toasted muffin?? Pancakes?? OK.... so maybe not a proper breakfast.... maybe more of a tradie's breakfast. A spring roll and a giant cup of coffee to wash it down from the bakery in Te Hana. Now I was ready to hit the road. So... As I said.... back down through Auckland, straight down the motorway (also known as SH1), all the way to Hamilton. Now 2pm and still no idea where I was intending to end up for the night, I ... read more
Black Water Rafting 2
Black Water Rafting 7
Hobbiton

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Waitomo Caves April 24th 2013

I had an early morning start, leaving Rotorua for Waitomo at 7.45am. I had a coach change in a city called Hamilton, and arrived in Waitomo at 11am. Dejavou of being back in Fox glacier or Arthurs Pass appeared as the ‘town’ had one café which doubled as the general store, the i-site (information centre) and then the hostel cum hotel/café/bar/pizzeria where I was staying. Although I booked a 4 bed dorm room, they put me in a twin (bonus) and its ready, so I go and put my stuff in. I guess it is only 11am, and it’s great my room is ready, but the rest of the hostel isn’t. I put my stuff it the fridge in the kitchen, and the place is a sea of litter, dirty pans and flies everywhere….nice. The other ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Waitomo Caves April 22nd 2013

Monday, 22nd April - Day Nineteen: Rotorua to Waitomo 163km (98 miles). On Highway 30 we head back southwest across country to Waitomo to visit the intriguing wet and dry caves where we see glowworms for the first time. They’re fascinating to see in the darkness of the caves - little pinpricks of light that attract all kinds of flying insects from the pools or river beneath our feet. Our guide briefly flashes a torch so that we can see the thin threads that hang from them to catch their food. The caves may not be as cavernous as others elsewhere but do have their own unique atmosphere. As we travel the road, we stop for a moderate to difficult forest walk to see one of the oldest trees in the country, the Pouakani Totara Tree, ... read more
Waitomo Caves
on the way to Waitomo
clouds and cliffs

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Waitomo Caves March 12th 2013

We arrived in Waitomo after some lovely walks on the way through some dark caves and an old gold mining cave. This was really fun trying to walk through caves with no light and then coming out the other end to the most beautiful scenes of green trees as far as the eye can see and crystal clear lakes hundreds of feet below. Once in waitomo me and Pete went off for our guided tour of the glow worm caves. The rest of our friends had opted to do the various activities that included tubing through the caves or abseiling and tubing but as we have already done these kind of activities throughout our travels we just opted for the walk and mini boat ride. The tour was only half an hour and involved walking though ... read more
Railway tunnel of Kopu Ranges
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Bridge of old gold mining tunnels




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