Rotorua and Waitomo

Wed, Nov 18, 2009

Last night when we got to Rotorua, it was early enough for us to drive around town and get a look at things. I saw on our detailed driving map that there was a motor camp right downtown adjacent to the town park, which happens to be a geothermally active area. It wasn’t listed in the campground listings or the Lonely Planet guidebook, but I figured if it was that close to the park, it might just have a hot pool that would come with the price of camping there. Sure enough, we pulled in and not only did it have a hot pool, free with the price of admission, but it had a bar and three kitchens, and the price was only $10.50 a person. Sweet. So we got ourselves plugged in, went for a walk through the park, came back and had dinner (more mustgo), then went for a soak in the pool. Oh did that feel nice. There was a huge group of high school kids staying at the park, and after we had been in the pool about 20 minutes, they began to invade, so we took the opportunity to vacate and hit the showers. I noticed that the floor in the women’s showers was warm even to the point of being hot. A pretty nice feature to offer a warm bathroom floor in a campground on a cool night.

The town park was quite an experience. You would never see such a thing in the US – the whole area would be cordoned off with danger signs warning you away. Here they just have a single sign to remind you that geothermal areas are by their nature unstable and the ground can shift or collapse without warning, and then let you go on about your walk. There is some fencing around some of the deeper pools, but in some places you could walk right up to the edge of a pool so that your feet were nearly in the water. In this country they pretty much figure that if you’re an adult, you should be capable of taking care of yourself and willing to accept the consequences when you don’t. If water is smoking, it’s probably hot. If you jump in without testing how hot and boil yourself, that’s your own darn fault.

Leaving Rotorua

The rain is lashing down this morning as we drive away from Rotorua. I don’t know if it’s because we’re in a geothermal area, but with the rain, the forests look like they’re steaming. Well, they actually ARE steaming. It lends a misty, mystical feel to the drive. Especially as we drive along the Pokitu Stream… the trees on the opposite shore are enveloped in mist and steam and the view down river is like looking through gauze.

The countryside through which we are driving this morning is the very definition of pastoral. Verdant pastures of grass clipped short by grazing animals, cows and sheep placidly going about their business on the hillsides, the odd shade tree here and there providing some shelter, and then every once in a while, looking oddly out of place, small groupings of tree ferns. We find ourselves, once again, deep in LOTR land, this time driving through the Shire.

Waitomo

We’ve just come from touring the Waitomo glowworm caves. You can’t just walk up to a cave and go see glowworms, you have to sign up with a tour group because the cave entrances are all privately controlled, so we decided to go with a group that offers a 3 hour experience that included some very pleasant company, good conversation, beautiful walks through pancake stacked limestone pastures, and of course, the glowworm caves.

In the first cave, we were given time to let our eyes adjust to the dark, then we climbed into a raft and floated deeper into the cave. The longer we were in there, the more our eyes adjusted and the more glowworms we saw. It was truly amazing, like sailing through the Milky Way with the stars close enough to touch. The ceiling of the cave looked like the blackest sky with millions of stars sprinkled across it. Really beautiful. The second cave had very few glowworms, but was filled with cool stalactites and stalagmites. It was considerably cooler than the first cave and had a breeze that pulsed through it. The Maori called it The Spirit Cave. They thought the pulsing breeze was a powerful spirit, and they gave it a wide berth.

The glowworms are the larval stage of an insect that lives in the caves. They spin down silken threads and emit a small glow to attract other insects into their traps. Imagine a million lighting bugs all holding still. Incredible.

We have seen so many amazing things on this island. Jeff and I were discussing how we think this is THE most beautiful place we’ve ever been. Within the span of one small island you can see Switzerland, Norway, Yellowstone, Costa Rica, Hawaii (every road here is like the road to Hana), Marblehead, England/Scotland and just about every other place we’ve ever visited. New Zealand features every type of clime except desert. How convenient… that’s my least favorite. We are sad to be wrapping up this part of our trip, but new adventures await us in Australia.