There was quite a lot of rain rattling on the roof overnight, but fortunately it cleared off a bit this morning. We got up early (by our standards), and had checked out of the resort by 8:30 a.m. It's a miracle! 😄
The reason for our early rising is that if we were going to see anything in Taupo (besides JQ's thermal pools yesterday), we have to do it in the morning, as we have to move on to Waitomo by this afternoon.
We were interested in visiting the Craters of the Moon park, so we headed there first thing. Not to be confused with the park of the same name in Idaho (which is more of a lava field), this piece of land has active geothermal activity, resulting in craters and fumaroles that you see steam rising from.
There's a boardwalk that winds around the park, and occasionally when walking along, you'll get a sudden gust of heat and a whiff of sulphur. There are no geysers here, just steam constantly rising upwards from cracks in the earth, along with craters and a few little mud pits. I have to keep wiping off my camera lens, because the steam keeps coating it with moisture as we walk along. At one of the lookout points, we can see the mud pits bubbling away, and in other places you can see the movement of boiling water just below the gaps in the earth.
According to the woman at our hotel, if we'd been to Rotorua, we wouldn't be impressed with Craters of the Moon; however, we were mostly rained out of Rotorua and just barely winged the town, having to stick to more indoor than outdoor activities. (Yes, Rotorua is on the do-over list.) So we are quite happy to wander along through Craters today.
Very interesting park, and because we were early, we had it mostly to ourselves. At the end, there's a walk up to a viewpoint, and from that vantage point we can see two or three other groups entering the park, but they're way far away, and it was a nice change to have a quiet stroll instead of jockeying for viewing points.
Hey, JQ, maybe we should take a hint from this and head out early every morning! Oh. JQ says no.
And it is a very short drive to Huka Falls (the proximity is not surprising when our hotel is named the Huka Falls Resort). As I'm sure you all know 😜, Lake Taupo drains out into
the Waikato River, which then narrows and sweeps over the rocks as Huka Falls. It is a very beautiful blue stretch of water, both in the turbulent rapids before, and the river after the waterfall.
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| Rapids just before the falls |
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| Huka Falls (with baby rainbow!) |
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| Huka Falls downstream |
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| Huka Falls, viewing platform on side |
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There are a lot of hikes in the area, but we need to drive to Waitomo, which is about 2 hours away. At the Waitomo Caves, we have tours booked for today and tomorrow, so will be staying overnight.
The first time we pass through a decent sized town, JQ made me stop at a Unichem, because she needs more saline for her contacts. Yes, again. I swear she drinks the stuff when I'm not looking. (Maybe when she can't get her hands on some coffee...) 😬 Oh yeah, and I don't think I mentioned that what we call pharmacies are usually called "chemist" shops in New Zealand and Australia. Just another terminology difference from down under.
Our GPS can't seem to find the address for our hotel (because it is not the smartest GPS that God ever created), so we just head straight to Waitomo Caves since we won't have time to check in before our first tour anyway. Oh wait, there it is, right up on the hill overlooking the visitor center. That's convenient. And wow, it's a gorgeous old hotel! The check-in time is at 2 p.m., same time as our tour, but we are able to drop off our luggage in advance, which is good. I didn't really want to leave the car fully loaded in a big tourist stop. Especially with all the "lock it or lose it" signs around the parking spots.
With our luggage safely stowed, we head off and park in a parking pit, which is not the official name, but is an adequate descriptor. That parking lot is a bowl shaped depression at the bottom of a VERY steep hill. Man, I'm feeling it in my calves when we have to trudge on back up out of the parking lot and up to the visitor center to get our tickets printed out.
Our first tour is the Ruakiri Caves. Are you thinking "more caves? Didn't you already do that?" Yes, we did visit Jenolan Caves in Australia, but the caves in Waitomo are specifically famous for glow-worms. Our tour guide is Dory (and he and JQ bond over video games. Apparently, he played in a Pokemon tournament and placed 30th in the world, which means he can kick butt if any of us challenge him. Fortunately, most of us seem to be here for the glow-worm caves).
By the way, in Maori, 'wai' means 'water' and 'tomo' is 'tunnel', so
Waitomo is a place where the water goes into the earth. 'Rua' means
'den' and 'kuri' means 'dog', and wild dogs were originally living in
the cave entrance. These are the kind of tidbits you pick up from your tour guides.😀
The tour starts at an artificial cave entrance (they don't use the original entrance because the Maori had buried some of their people there) that is a great spiralling ramp down into darkness. Cool. Super cool! Apparently this is the only wheelchair accessible cave in the southern hemisphere (although I wouldn't want to be pushing that chair up or down those ramps).
These caves are limestone, so they essentially are the sedimentary remains of ancient seabeds, which would have been raised up during ancient earthquakes. As such, some of the rock walls have fossils in them. The water still runs through, carving stalactites and kinds of rock formations, which are very very slow-growing (about 100 years per cubic cm, and even slower for some other formations), and if you damage one, you are subject to a $10,000 fine.
JQ asks if anyone has ever been fined. Yes, Dory knows of two people who were fined, and the police get called, and it's a big freaking deal. And in both the areas where they broke away rocks, extra protections have been put in place, which is good, but it reduces visibility, which is bad. Some areas that used to be open are no longer open due to jerks like that. This is why we can't have nice things! 😡
We then get to the glow worm area, and he asks if people want to know the Disney explanation of glow worms (they glow because they are happy and kind), or the real nightmare explanation. Some people want Disney, but more are clamouring for the nightmare version.
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| Not a night sky, but glow worms on the rock ceiling |
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Dory uses his helmet light to
illuminate the glow-worm webs |
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| The glow worms and their webs |
In brief, the glow worms that basically build a hammock from webs. They lie in the hammock, with
tendrils hanging down beneath them. They have a glowing light in the midsection to attract insects. An insect
blunders into their web, and the worm pulls it up and sucks out its brains and eats it.
After 5 months, they cocoon themselves, turn into some kind of flying
moth with a poorly formed mouth, so they can't eat, and their purpose is
to mate and lay many many eggs before dying of starvation. When the
eggs hatch, the first few glow-worms out will eat their unhatched
siblings, because they live in a cave and there's not much to eat and
they're hungry. So they are also cannibals, who eat their siblings, and they live a short hard life. Yikes!
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| Cuddly glow worms |
Nevertheless, when you finish the tour, you can buy a stuffed Disneyfied version of the glow-worms that is smiling and cuddly.
In the distance we hear screaming, and Dory says that is the people on the Blackwater Tours. He laughs about how they have to jump backwards off a waterfall in the dark, and how sometimes the guides will push them off if they hesitate too much. JQ seems intrigued and wants to do this tour. I am seriously doubtful, as that screaming doesn't sound fun to me. (Nevertheless, once our tour is over, she books us in on the three-hour Black Labyrinth Tour, "the original Black Water Rafting Adventure that will have you tubing, walking and floating through mysterious Ruakuri Cave". Eep. Usually I avoid activities with the word "adventure" prominently featured.) 😰
Our second tour of the day is the Glow Worm Tour. You may think we just did this, and you're right that there's some overlap, but the Glow Worm Tour is a short cave walk, followed by a boat ride out under the glow worms. There is no photography allowed on this tour while inside the caves. The cave is a much easier cave - its base was all mud and silt, so it is now a big wide paved surface.
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| End of the Glow Worm boat trip |
Unfortunately, for us, there is a family with two very young children. I think the one girl is old enough to enjoy the tour, and the toddler is just a fussy little noisemaker who will not even remember this tour, so why? Why? How much noise do you think a screaming two-year-old can make in a cave? It can get loud.
I get that the parents want to go see these things, but I think it's gotta be pretty stressful for them when their kid starts acting up. Maybe your holiday memories are "we went to the caves, and when we were supposed to float through the underwater river in silence, I spent the whole time hushing little Rutiger who kept whimpering and hollering."
Anyway, we have a large tour group, and JQ and I were hoping to not be on the boat with the young'uns, but of course we were.
After that, we head up to our hotel, which JQ has taken to calling the
"Overlook Hotel" (after the one in The Shining). It does kind of have
the look of a haunted hotel sitting at the top of a hill, doesn't it?
It is a great old building, emphasis on old, as it is over 100 years old. It's got the slightly threadbare carpets in the halls, portraits and chandeliers on the staircase, strange little balconies and alcoves, and numerous wings leading in different directions. Our room is small, and the bathroom is tiny! No microwave, but we do have another tiny fridge, and old-fashioned sash windows. And wifi. Gotta have the wifi!
JQ and I do a little exploring, including an area that they're renovating and we're probably not supposed to be in, but we just talk about being "lost" (and we both look so clueless, they may actually believe it).
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| View from the hotel grounds |
Tomorrow, we have the Aranui Cave tours left, and the Black Labyrinth Tour that JQ just booked today.
As we're expected in Auckland by the end of the day tomorrow (and because Labyrinth is listed as a 3-hour tour), I send a quick email to our motel, letting them know that we will be arriving, but that we will be later than expected.
Now it's time to see how we sleep in a possibly haunted hotel!
😜
We were interested in visiting the Craters of the Moon park, so we headed there first thing. Not to be confused with the park of the same name in Idaho (which is more of a lava field), this piece of land has active geothermal activity, resulting in craters and fumaroles that you see steam rising from.
What's going on what's happening? Did you make it out of the Black Labyrinth? (Are you home? The lack of a post is making me nervous 😓)
ReplyDeleteThe Black Labyrinth was definitely an adventure! I just have to add here that Flegel said she wanted to go! And then swore the entire time.
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