Ki Ora from New Zealand
We left at 8am after breakfast to head to Waitomo. This is the best place in New Zealand to see glow worms. Wendy had recommended them to me and I booked myself on the Spellbound tour. You’ve also got the choice to do the “Haggis Honking Holes” and “Tubing”. One involved abseiling and the other getting on a large inflatable tube in the dark. As I’d already done tubing in Laos and had a feeling that there was better abseiling in the country I thought I’d make the most of the little sparkly creatures.
About 6 of us from the bus were booked on and we were driven through the countryside to the caves. You get in to the cave and are given a torch it’s so dark but it’s amazing how your eyes soon adjust to the darkness. Glow worms live for around 60 days before they become flies, ironically the flies then get caught in the glow worms sticky mess and get eaten by them. Although if you’re a male fly you get to mate with as many female ones as possible before you meet your end. Then the female lays her eggs which hatch in the water to once again become worms and the cycle starts again.
We were led on to a dinghy and were pulled up and down in the caves where we sat in the darkness and looked at what looked like a million bright shining stars in the dark. It was really pretty. After a while and a cup of milo we were taken to another cave where we walked through. Inside this cave was a skeleton of a Moa, a now extinct flightless bird which looks like a cross between the emu and an ostrich. It must have fallen through a hole in the top and had been there for a few hundred years. It’s believed they died out due to the Maori people eating them.
Time to congregate back together and Baggins took us to see one of the few free activities in New Zealand. The shearing of an Angora rabbit. Angorra wool is hugely expensive and they strap the little bunny up and shave him. Apparently it’s good for them to get rid of the hair. I’m not too sure about that he didn’t look too happy.
Oh well time to get back on the bus and head to Rotorua…
Transport count :
Plane = 12, Bus = 34, Train =2, Boat = 10, Sunglasses = 5, Mosquito Repellant = 8
Take care
Sally x
April 16, 2009 at 3:41 pm |
[...] by SallyD. Her blog is http://sallyd.wordpress.com/ . The specific post is: http://sallyd.wordpress.com/2007/10/24/wormy-waitomo-north-island-new-zealand/ I looked for a way to contact Sally to ask for permission, because That is what I do if I use [...]