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Published: December 26th 2008
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We were quite eager to get on the road leaving Whenuakite, not because we didn’t like the place or enjoy our stay in Seabreeze Tourist Park, far from it, but we were quite eager to make our way to Waitomo and check out the famous caves!
Along the way though we had to stop off in Hamilton, to swap over our Ford Focus for another car. Unfortunately the Focus had been quite noisy in its objection to driving up over mountain roads, around sharp bends and up inclines. It was whining and rattling underneath so we decided we should swap it over before whatever was wrong with it became the reason we were stranded up on a hillside far from civilisation. So we found the Hertz office with a little guidance from a local businessman, and swapped the Focus for a lovely new 6-speed 1.8 litre Toyota Corolla. We noticed the difference straight away. It was a much nicer car and didn’t take the same amount of effort on some of the more difficult roads that the Focus had taken.
After our detour it was full steam ahead to Waitomo. We found the very small town with ease and
checked into our hostel. It was a nice place, more of a lodge than a hostel but the facilities you’d expect and need were all available, with a small restaurant added in for good measure and a pretty cool name, Kiwi Paka, to boot We took a walk around to get our bearings (a very short walk!) and booked our cave tours for the next morning. Writing Christmas cards took up some time in the evening before we hit the sack anticipating the next morning’s adventures.
The next morning began early with us checking out and making it down to the Glowworm Cave for the 10.00 tour. The tour guide explained to us that we weren’t allowed to take any photos or touch the rock and we proceeded in. We found out that these glowworms weren’t worms at all but in fact glow-maggots! We learned a bit of their life and how they feed, basically they live very short lives, before we boarded a boat and were guided into the darkness of the cave. The thousands and thousands of glowworms on the roof of the cave were spectacular! It was pitch black and we were all completely silent, looking
on straining our necks in awe at these striking insects, before we came upon the exit to the cave, which we were informed was the site of the cave’s discovery over 100 years ago.
An hour later we were being picked up for our 2nd cave tour to Ruakuri Cave. Took a little longer to get there, a whole 10 minutes! J We had another run through of the rules, this time we could take photos but still no touching the rocks. The tour was an hour and a quarter long, during which time we saw some wondrous rock formations and some fossils. We were told a lot about the history of the cave, most of which has already disappeared from our brains! But what we do remember is quite interesting. Basically, when the cave was discovered about 100 yeas ago, the owner of the farm above it started running tours. The government soon after decided to take control over it and to run their own tours for many a year. The grandchildren of the original owner of the farm researched the case and found out that when you own land, you own it all the way to the
earth’s core. So they took back control of the cave and ceased all tours, basically out of spite! The caves lay dormant for many years until Blackwater Rafting Inc approached the family with an offer of renting the caves from them in order to begin tours again. So now they rent the caves from the family on a long term lease and began tours again in 2005 having installed all the necessary lighting and walk-ways to make it accessible to large tour groups and back water rafters.
Heading away from Waitomo we headed towards the Bay of Plenty, Tauranga in particular. We found our way there with relative ease, and promptly checked ourselves into the YHA hostel. We found Tauranga to be a lovely town though our say was brief. The next morning we hit the road to take in Mount Maunganui and its highly recommended beach. Unfortunately for us it was quite a miserable day, plenty of wind and rain so we couldn’t spend much time out of our car. We drove on along the coast stopping off for lunch at Papamoa Beach and stopping further along at Maramarua Beach, with the rain thankfully easing for us to
actually get out and have a look around!
We stopped in the town of Whakatane and found ourselves a room in The Craic Irish bar in the middle of town. Not the best place we’ve stayed in by far, but it was clean and central for us to park up and stroll around the town dodging the raindrops. It was here we came upon the only waterfall in a town in New Zealand, and it was really pretty. We took a drive up the hillside which produced some fabulous views of the town and the river running to the sea.
The next morning we took to the road once more heading for Rotorua…
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