Our last day of adventuring began with sleeping in a little bit and relaxing in our AirBnB. The view from our front balcony/living area was pretty spectacular because of the sunrise over the ocean. Although I think I might have been the only person awake (except probably Todd) to see it. We hadn’t unpacked much stuff because we were only going to be there for one night, so after breakfast we lounged for a little while until we were ready to leave. We had a long day of driving ahead of us, because our next destination – glow worm caves in Waitomo – were about four hours away. On the way out of Napier we passed by some lighthouses that seemed a little random – they were pretty far off the coast! The reason for this was that in the 20’s or so there was a giant earthquake here that lifted the ground up enough to create a huge amount of new land (which was then given to the government). It also pretty much destroyed the town so they rebuilt it all Art Deco style which has been maintained to this day. We also made two fruit stand stops – the first for some random fruits, the second for some feijoas and some limes. It’s crazy how expensive comparatively expensive limes are here.
Along the way to Waitomo we stopped in Taupo at our new favorite meat pie place – this time I got a lasagna pie and it tasted just like lasagna inside a delicious flaky crust. We had no stops the rest of the way to our tour with Glowing Adventures – a small family run business that does only small group tours. We got changed into our provided clothing because this tour requires a little bit of spelunking. Nothing crazy, but you definitely get bootfulls of water and muddy knees. Our tour guide, Ash, began by leading us down into a ravine with a small stream in it. It was absolutely spectacular how the landscape changed from green grass for grazing to basically a rainforest in just a few feet! After walking around the ravine a little bit we headed into the cave. The beginning part of the tour involved a little bit of climbing over rocks and squeezing through tight parts, which was something I had never experienced while on a cave tour before. I had a fleeting moment of panic while we were waiting to crawl through this one area, but I kept my mouth shut so the terror wouldn’t infect anyone else. Ash made sure to take a bunch of pictures too which was very nice and made up for my hidden fear of being crushed between giant rocks (it wasn’t as bad as I’m typing, it was a really enjoyable first time spelunking!)
After exploring for a little while we finally go to the part we were waiting for – we turned off our lights and saw some glow worms! Technically they’re not worms but are really the maggot stage of the fungus fly (or some type of fly), but glow worms sounds a little more appealing than glow maggots. They attract insects to their little fishing line tendrils by glowing lightly. When they catch one they retract it up and eat it. They tend to cluster around the river because there are more insect there – our guide said they’re outside too but during the day there is definitely too much light. We spent several minutes just sitting there at the end looking at them. It pretty much looked like the night sky, but underground in a cave! Definitely a worthwhile experience. They’re hard to photograph without a tripod and a big camera so Ash snagged some photos for us before leading us back to the starting point. Here we got changed back into our clothes and had some tea and cookies.
Next was the mildly terrifying drive from Waitomo to New Plymouth. I say that because in New Zealand they contour the road to the winding hills, which makes for a road with a whole bunch of twists and turns. This particular stretch had turns that were supposed to be taken at around 20 miles/hour. We arrived in New Plymouth and got a tour of Todd and Katy’s “home” – a refurbished Victorian mansion with a billiards room, a sitting room, a dining room, a modern kitchen/tv room and a bunch of bedrooms (some of which are locked). The locked rooms are for the people that Todd and Katy rent the house from, who potentially might be living and working in Australia for the time being. I say “home” because I think they’ve spent twice as many nights not sleeping there as sleeping there. For dinner we cooked up some burgers (I made them a little too thick), a beet patty, and some veggies. After some board games we called it a night and got to sleep in a little the next day.
For our last full day in New Zealand we didn’t really have anything planned. So we kicked it off with some breakfast, champagne, and Sea of Clouds. I like Sea of Clouds personally because, while there is strategy, there isn’t nearly as much strategy as Catan and it is really light hearted. We have no idea why they have to be sky pirates instead of water pirates though, none of the cards are especially sky-themed. After a little while we decided it was time to go outside and boy do Todd and Katy have a beautiful neighborhood! About fifty feet from their house is an absolutely gorgeous river walk, complete with rainforest like trees, a river (duh), some ducks and an ice cream place (nobody bit on my hook to see if we wanted ice cream). After the enchanting walk we made our way to the equally mesmeratic ocean walk! Like, c’mon, you can’t have both a rainforest river walk and an ocean walk in the same place, that’s not fair.
We walked for a few kilometers and then turned back to head to a new location for a New Zealand brewery. They had a pretty nice interior going on, their beer was good, and their fried snacks were equally good. We had an early dinner at 5:00 at a new Indian whiskey bar – Todd and Katy booked it on First Table – basically we were there right when the restaurant opened so we got 50% food. They (as expected) had a bunch of whiskeys available, but couldn’t actually make any whiskey cocktails. I can understand sticking to your guns but I think their clientele might expand if they offered an array of cocktails too. The food and drinks were really good! Like seriously good. They also had elderberry fever tree which was fantastic (and didn’t smell).
After dinner we played some more games, then packed up a bunch of stuff. We packed extra because Adela and I had snagged business class tickets for the way home using a poorly advertised United award ticket perk. Todd drove us to the airport and our flight was a little delayed which meant I got to spend a little more time just hanging out (aww) and then we began our 24 hour/4 plane journey back to Harrisburg. Overall it went as well as it could, but it was way more disorienting coming home than going there that’s for sure!
New Zealand is definitely a land of adventure – the landscape is just so varied and asking to be explored. The people there all seemed to be friendly (something I’ve found about just about everywhere I go) – but perhaps the biggest contrast was in the airports! The only rude travelers we met were in the security line in San Francisco! Coming home was a lot harder than going there too. Asiana blew United out of the water in terms of service, although the United plane had recently been refurbished and was a little more comfortable. It’s impossible to explore an entire country in a week, and I think we only got a taste of what New Zealand has to offer. I want to go back, probably to the south island, but first I think we’ll look at some closer destinations 🙂
