After we left Wellington we explored New Plymouth, Waitomo Caves, and Hamilton on the way back to Auckland.
New Plymouth
New Plymouth is a fun town and we enjoyed our stay there. We walked from our Airbnb to the Wind Wand, which is a 158 foot sculpture that has become the symbol of New Plymouth. It rotates with the wind and lights up at night, and is considered the center of their oceanfront walking and biking trail.
We then hiked Paritutu Rock. It is short, steep, and has an awesome 360 view of the surrounding area. Unfortunately the nearby stunning volcano, Mt Taranaki, was covered in clouds so we weren’t able to see it.
After our climb hike we went to Back Beach below Paritutu Rock to swim and enjoy the warm afternoon.
Waitomo Caves
We then drove from New Plymouth to Waitomo Caves and hiked the Ruakuri Track to get our first view of glow worms. The track is in a wet rainforest type of environment and has small caves that are fun to explore.
Next we took the Spellbound Explorer tour that included a hike and raft through a glow worm cave. The caves are formed in limestone formations that look a lot like bricks stacked together. The glow worms live on the ceiling of the caves, drop threads and use their bioluminescence to attract and catch insects. The experience is amazing, they look like stars in the sky and are very bright. Some areas of the caves have hundreds of them. We also saw huge cave crickets called weta that are direct descendants of those living when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
The Black Abyss tour was a highlight of our stay in Waitomo Caves. On this tour we rappelled, ziplined, tubed, floated, swam, and climbed waterfalls through a glow worm cave. It was amazing!!
Our guide created a fun long exposure picture in the cave with our small group. That is him photo-bombing in the back of the cave. Diane and I are at the front of the picture, standing in the underground river, waist deep in water, holding inner tubes.
We stayed at the Aranui Farmstay while we were in Waitomo Caves and enjoyed a hike around their farm.
We also went to the local rugby match and ended up hanging out with several locals at the pub after the game. It was interesting to meet people whose ancestral ties to the area go back over 800 years.
Hamilton
On our drive to Auckland from Waitomo Caves we stopped at Hamilton Gardens. They have an amazing variety of gardens inspired by concepts from across the globe and history.
Leaving New Zealand
We will publish a highlights blog soon trying to summarize our three months exploring New Zealand. We had an amazing trip and counted on the silver ferns (actually United) to guide us back home.
