We are glowing up.

Sunday, January 12th, 2025 was the day we said goodbye to Rotorua and made our way back to Auckland.  Our driver, Mike picked us up around 9 and we were on our way. We were scheduled to stop in Waitomo to see the glow worm caves which are a unique feature of this area.  Mike asked us when our time was and I told him 1:30.  Mike’s eyes got big and he said “We have a lot of time to kill because the caves aren’t that far away.” Team Anseth had varying degrees of frustration with this response.  Some were furious, some were sad and some tried to find solutions.  I was unable to move up our time so we needed to find something to do for probably about 2.5 hours before our cave tour.

Mike, a retired firefighter who loves golf had a few tricks up his sleeve.

Our first side adventure involved a bird sanctuary where we had the opportunity to see the New Zealand native bird the Kiwi.  Kiwis are nocturnal so they are rarely seen out and about.  They don’t fly, they just walk along the ground looking for food.

Ashley, Katie and a large statue of a Kiwi.

This is a heron. Not a kiwi

This is a parakeet. Not a kiwi.

The kiwi are in this dark room.  There were probably around 15 of us looking for the dam Kiwi, when Katie finally spotted it.  A little bigger than a football with a long beak walking on the enclosure floor.  We were in the dark room for 15-20 minutes before we finally saw it.  Ashley was there 5 min, before declaring this was a waste of time.

This is a statue of a Moa, a large flightless bird that went extinct in NZ around 1400 AD.  This statue is the actually size so you can see how big they were.

We still had time before the cave so we grabbed a little lunch.  I had a burger and a milkshake which was a bit aggressive when you think about spending the next 2-2.5 hours in an underground cave.

We finally made it to Black Water Rafting.  We signed the obligatory waiver and were fitted for 5 mm thick neoprene wetsuits, helmets and rubber boats.  Then it was on a bus.  We first practiced floating and jumping into the river with our tubes and then we headed to the cave.  I am pretty sure the girl taking the photos didn’t like me because you will not see more unflattering photos of me anywhere else.

So we are in a cave, with cold water looking at glow worms.  This is already a questionable situation then add to it that we have two knuckleheads (I am being kind here) who keep making the same dumb glow worm jokes for the next 2 hours.   Cold, Dark and irritated is not a great way to spend the afternoon.

Here we go off into the caves.

Before we enter the cave.

A large splash into the river 

The girls getting ready to enter the cave

The crew in the cave 

Ash and Katie are smiling 

Seriously, this is the photo she took

Walking in the cave 

Again, can you make me look anymore lurch like???

All smiles at the end

As my flexibility goes down and my girth increases I like being in these tight caves less and less. 

The waterfall we jump off of.

Stock image from Black River  This is fairly accurate.

Another stock image.  It wasn’t quite this dramatic.

I would tell you looking up at the glow worms while floating in complete darkness was pretty cool for about 20 minutes.  How bright the worms get is pretty amazing.

Now the facts- It is not a worm it is the larval stage of a fly, the bioluminescence is actually a secretion from the larva to attract any bugs which become entangled in this little tentacle and then ultimately become a meal for the larva.  The larva eventually turn into a flying insects, have sex for 5 days, die and then the cycle starts again.

Back on the road with Mike we made it to Auckland and the Intercontinental hotel.  Once checked in we headed to the Harborside for dinner.

A Moulin Rouge

Oysters and sushi

We broke it down over dinner and decided the cave was OK not great. If you were in NZ, We would just do the walking tour and not the float.  Probably a huge error choosing this over Hobbiton, 😢 

Great day with the girls despite some frustrations all around.

On to Melbourne tomorrow.