It's Hard To Be Glum When The Sun Shines Out Your Bum!

So after a few wobbly pops at the pub in Taupo I had to get up stupidly early and be on the bus for 7:30am. I wasn't 'hungover' per say but, I didn't feel like a million bucks either. So I got ready, ate and jumped on the bus and we were off. You guys got a description of what the drive was like in one of my other posts because I was actually typing while we were driving. Kate had warned us that it was going to be twisty and she was going to be going fast, but I have NEVER seen roads that are that twisty turny. Kate is a pro! Needless to say that right after I wrote the public service announcement because of my morning condition I actually had to shut my computer and take a breather so my breakfast didn't end up on the floor of the bus. I mad it through, no puking which at one point I wasn't so sure was going to happen. I thought the turns would let up and we would have a straight stretch before we got to Waitomo but no, we turned a corner and we were coming into Waitomo.

That blue dot is a glow worm!

Now, Waitomo is a very very small little town and really has only one thing going for it, the caves. There a lot of people that pass through Waitomo annually but the permanent population is actually less then 50 people. P.S. That is where I will be living and working later in the year......... Anyway so we stopped, got our tickets for the caves and then had to wait about an hour until the tour started. I just hung out in the General Store, which is a little cafe and store in Waitomo. Our guide, Barnsy met us at the van and we all hopped aboard for our tour. Barnsy was a great fella, and smelled like a dream! He told us all about the area of Waitomo on the way to the caves and there was some pretty impressive landscapes that we passed along the way. We drove out to the middle of now where and over some farm land and then we were at the entrance to the caves. Barnsy told us that there are actually 7 entrances to the caves and miles and miles of cave under the ground in Waitomo. It depends on which company you book with as to what entrance you go in and what part of the caves you get to see. There are a number of tours to do in the caves from adrenaline pumping to the casual and informative. Since I will be coming back to Waitomo before I leave NZ I figured this time I would do something casual and go with just a walking tour. Barnsy took us down the stairs into the cave and it was very dark. He explained that the glow worms turn their lights off when they are around other lights so in order to give us the glow worm experience the first part of the tour would be very dark. He wasn't lying, there were small LED lights along the sides of the path and that was it. In some places he lit candles but it was very dark and sometimes he made it so it was so dark you couldn't see the person in front of you. The glow worms were really really beautiful. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of the clusters of glow worms because my camera wasn't good enough. I did get a picture of one glow worm tho. What it looks like is black dotted with hundreds of little blue lights. They look like stars in a dark night sky. They are really neat and group themselves into large clusters over a water source. I actually learned quite a bit about the glow worms, let me educate you.

So the glow worm is actually a larva of these little cave fly things, kind of like a caterpillar or maggot. What they do is they hang out on the roof of the caves over a water source and their bums glow in the dark. The reason they hang out over the water is because other insect larva gets washed into the cave then when they hatch from the water they fly up towards the glow worms. Insects are attracted to light and since the glow worms bum is the only light source in the cave the baby insects head toward the lights. The glow worms make these mucus fishing lines that hang straight down from where they hanging out. The insects fly up to the light and get stuck in the fishing lines and then the glow worm brings up the line and eats its catch. Smart! They do this for a while then they build a cocoon and stay inside for a bit before transforming into the fly. When they emerge they look like giant swamp mosquito and they actually have no mouth and no way to eat so in about 5 days they die of starvation. That is the life cycle of a glow worm! In the mean time it makes for some great tourist attractions and a beautiful sight to see in the dark caverns of the caves.

After the caves we jumped back on the bus and headed to National Park. The drive was okay, not as twisty turny as the way to Waitomo. National Park is only good for one thing and that is the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, the rest of the village is tiny and nothing to do, they don't even have a grocery store. The crossing is a pretty popular walk that lots and lots of people do and quite a few of the originals departed in National Park for the crossing. It takes between 6-8 hours walking to complete the crossing through the mountains, but from what I hear it is a very very beautiful hike. I will be doing the crossing but probably not until next summer the weather conditions can change on a dime up there and it didn't fit into my schedule time wise. Before checking into the hostels Kate took us up to a waterfall that was very beautiful and if you are a Lord Of The Rings fan you will recognize it from a scene where Golum(I don't know how to spell that) grabs a trout from the water and takes a big bite. It was a very nice set of falls, and you can jump off the top into the pool below when it is warmer. There was a dusting of snow on the mountains that morning so jumping into the water wasn't on my to do list for the day. I took a bunch of photos then we headed further up one of the mountains, and normally you can see Mount Doom from there but there was quite a few clouds in the way this day. All the mountains around here are old volcanoes so when you go up there is nothing but rocks and maybe a bit of scrub brush. After having a look around we went and checked into our hostel for the night. Coming down the mountain there is a place called Whakapapa and what is funny about that is in Maori the 'Wh' is pronounced as a 'F'. Take a minute and figure that out................Haha! There is also a place called Whakatane in the North Island and that one is even funnier because Tane is the Maori word for man. Hehe!

Anyway I digress! So I checked into my hostel which had a climbing wall inside, awesome! My room was actually in a little cave of the climbing wall which was both interesting and confusing when I was trying to find it. Since there is actually NOTHING to do in National Park village I used the last of my free internet to load up some pictures and blogs, made some dinner and went to the pub for a few drinks with the magic peeps. We had a few beers and shared some laughs which was really quite fun and I am sad that we left Matt the Englishman in National Park because he is a good fella to shoot the shit with. Aw well that is the life of a traveller, you meet people and lots of times I don't even know their names despite the fact we hang out a lot. Then you part ways and you pick up with someone else. I guess what is why I am so suited for travelling because of my cold black heart ;).

Right now we are driving to Wellington and this leg is not exciting in the least so I probably won't write another blog until after we leave Wellington.