Waipu to Waitomo - 26th Nov

After a comfortable stay in the B&B we decided we would visit the 'best smallest museum in NZ'. We did have a very long drive to Waitomo afterall, probably the best part of 6 hours with only a short break, and so we at least wanted to do something interesting with the day.

In NZ time, not distance, is how far or near a place is described, distance is almost irrelevant given the landscape and roads. Most maps and charts even omit the distance and just quote hours and minutes.

Waipu, as alluded to in yesterday's post, has a strong Scottish heritage and the museum lived up to it's good reputation by providing a comprehensive and engaging explanation of how it came about. We spent a very interesting 1 ½ hours learning about how the original settler community of Waipu followed a charismatic preacher by the name of Rev Norman McLeod from Scotland to Canada and then on to New Zealand. The trip from Canada was all the more amazing given that the community built their own ships for the mammoth crossing.

After the museum we grabbed a coffee, a Flat White for me and a Latte for Emma, stuck the radio on and set off towards Auckland. Within 5 minutes, something came on the radio that grabbed our attention – there were still U2 (Jay Z supporting) tickets available for their gig tonight in Auckland. We wrestled with whether we could maybe go, afterall we were going through Auckland, but we came to the conclusion it was just not practical.

Flyby Auckland Photo

It was a good job we came to that conclusion as it was almost 5pm when we arrived in Waitomo. That meant it took us around 4 hours from Auckland to Waitomo and this would not have been practical to do after the gig. A shame as an ad hoc opportunity like that would not occur in the UK.

Arriving in Waitomo we went straight to the information centre to investigate the possible cave tours for the next day. I wanted to do an abseil, cave tubing, rock climbing combo with a side of Glowworm viewing and Emma reluctantly agreed after an independent assessment from someone who had just been on it. However it was fully booked so we both booked on the more sedate 'Spellbound' tour for the next day and I booked on a night abseil for that evening. Emma opted for the opportunity to watch the Australian X factor final on TV.

The night abseil was very good, it was based just 2 mins from town and run by two brothers whose family have owned the land and therefore the cave for generations. Apparently Waitomo is unique in that it was agreed that the land owner owns all the 'earth' below the surface, so if a cave (or mine etc) is under your land then you definitely own it.

The abseil was down a 50 metre hole in the ground where glowworms congregate in great numbers. The first run was at dusk and whilst I saw some it was nothing compared to the second time round where the whole chasm was filled with the LED-type light of hundreds of thousands of glowworms trying to catch their dinner. To get a decent photo was impossible, apparently most nature programmes have to photoshop any footage they show of them.

Do the white wellies go with the blue and red?

Footnotes:

a) Two general (and maybe generalising) observations about accommodation in NZ:

• They are often owned by people from the UK or at least not from NZ.
• The internet access is not as good as in South America, or at the very least it is often not free, whereas in South America it was always free in our experience.

b) Pound vs the NZ$ - Last time we were here the Great British pound used to buy you 3 NZ$, at present it gets you closer to 2.... it tips the balance on whether something is cheap or not and hence contributes to whether you consider it good value. Whilst I really enjoyed the abseil and am glad I did it, $175 was on reflection maybe a little steep. The cost of something is in danger of becoming a constant theme in the blog, I apologise.