North Island Day 2

First highlight of the day was at the highly recommended Waitomo Caves, or the Glowworm Caves. We weren’t allowed to take any photos inside, but it was easily one of the coolest caves we both have been in. They were originally found and owned by the Māori people. Now New Zealand owns about 20% but they seemed to be mostly run by the original owners. We saw the glow worms for the first time from the side in the light, and you could see a little string hanging down that catches bugs like a spider.

We then got on a boat and we’re told to be completely quiet or else the noise would cause vibrations making the glow worms stop glowing. The boat took us into one big dark area where there were thousands of glow worms on the ceiling making it look like a night sky full of constellations.

It was a really wonderful tour and I see why it came highly recommended!

We drove about 30 mins further west to see a couple more sites.

The first was the Mangapohue Natural Bridge. We couldn't walk all the way up to it as the last half was closed, but you could see the large rock formation that made a bridge. The walk to see it was by a river/within two big boulders.

The second stop was the PiriPiri Caves. Not sure what I was expecting, but it definitey wasn't a dark cave that you could walk down into and completely unattended. There were no lights except for the natural light coming in and there were multiple flights of stairs deep into the cave. I was getting the willies and didn't want to become the next Goonies movie so we didn't stay for long. (Check the Photos album for the full video and more pics)

Last stop on the detour was the Marokopa Falls. Quite a muddy hike to get there, but worth it for the views!

Drove through many windy roads and countrysides and it just kept getting better. The one thing is the weather is very moody- every second it seems to be changing. As long as the sun comes out sometimes, we should be good!