Waitomo Caves and the Coromandel Farmstay

Look at me, getting right up to date. Today is 11 March 2014, and I'm having some downtime among other adventures.

A couple of days ago after leaving Rotorua, we drove to Waitomo Caves. We stayed at the best Top 10 yet. Oh, did I mention that there are not ten Top 10s? There are dozens. Regardless, the Waitomo park was exceptionally clean and new, and had a pool, a hot tub, and two trampolines. The surrounding area was particularly beautiful too.

Random kid looking at webs

Not stars!

Everyone goes to Waitomo to see the glow worm caves. Many people go black water rafting through the caves, but you have to be 12 years old, so we had to opt for a more family friendly tour. We picked the one that goes to the cave that was featured in the BBC Planet Earth series. Pretty good cred, I'd say.

Some creative photography here

Glow worms are not actually worms. They are maggots. The glow is a biochemical reaction that takes place in their kidneys. The 2-3 cm "worms" cast 15 cm webs straight down from the roof of the caves on which to catch their food. Glow worms can be found throughout NZ, but the Waitomo caves are particularly damp, as preferred by the glow worms, so they are abundant.

Cave #2 was lit

The first cave we entered was very dark. The 12 of us all got on a raft, turned off our headlamps, and floated down the underwater river. As our eyes adjusted to the darkness, millions of glow worms came into view. It was quite a sight. It looked like a brilliant night time sky. The silence of the cave was a little eerie, but it was incredibly beautiful. The pictures I've included were emailed to us by the tour operator because it is really difficult to get good photos and near-impossible with an iPad!

We went to a second cave which was not a glow worm cave, just a stalactite, stalagmite, column, cathedral run-of-the-mill cave. It was, however, a little unnerving to descend that far under the ground! Our guide was really informative about the creation of the caves and the origins of the various skeletons inside. I'm not entirely convinced the tour operators didn't simply plant the skeletons for interest's sake, but they made for good stories anyways.

Besides a really interesting hike through the bush to look at some more caves and waterfalls and whatnot, that was the extent of our Waitomo visit. Really, in a town with a population of 41 you can't expect a lot more.

We woke up early the morning to go to the Coromandel peninsula. We were going to spend a couple days at a farm! On our way, we stopped for a pee break in Paeroa, the home of L&P, Jack's favourite NZ beverage (thanks again to Al). We took the obligatory photo with the monstrous bottle of L&P and continued on our way. We had a final stop at the Coromandel Supermarket, possibly the worst grocery store in NZ, and drove a bit further north to Colville and the White Star Farm.

The COROMANDEL peninsula

These four city folks had quite the farming adventure. This was a very large beef farm with several horses, sheep, pigs, chickens, and a goat. We had a date with the farmer in the morning, so we went for a walk out at the Colville Bay and then hesitantly toured around the farm. The funny thing is that I'm more comfortable around the animals than any of the rest of the family. I guess those two summers of riding camp prepared me. I fed my apple core to the old horse who was wandering around (I named her Oatmeal) to try to put the boys at ease. Later, Jack gave her some carrots, so it worked. Before long, we had chickens at the door of our cabin, which we all thought was pretty hilarious. Brody and I met the farmer's grandchildren, and Brody climbed up a peach tree to help them get us some peaches.

Our date was to meet Ngaire, the farmer, at 8 am. We all woke up, excitedly ate breakfast and headed outside. The daughter-in-law got us started with milking the goat. We all took a turn, then we all had a taste. It was much better than I thought it would be. I was expecting a funky taste, but it wasn't all that different from cow's milk. You do have to get past the warmth of it, however.

The next stop was the chicken coop, then the pigs. The pigs were actually wild pigs that a family member captured as piglets. They ate exclusively table scraps, as it wasn't cost effective to buy them feed. I thought that was pretty telling. After watching the pigs gobble up their food, we went to feed the dairy calf (so cute), the pet sheep, and have a visit with the nine herding dogs. The cow drank milk from a bucket with a nipple attached. She was rescued from the uncle's farm who had planned to just "give it a knock to the head" because it was a second calf (I don't question these things). The herding dogs were the only animals on the farm who were tied up. They were very affectionate, but were clearly eager to get loose and run after some cows, as we saw later.

Ngaire then pulled out the quad bike. Jack and Bill sat above the rear wheels, Brody and I sat on the front hood, and Ngaire and her granddaughter sat in the seat. It was a riot! We went to the horse paddock and herded them out to another field, we crossed a couple streams, and we went to a big old pear tree to get some fruit. Unfortunately, that was the end of our date. Brody was wanting to do more farm chores! After lunch, he and Bill went shellfish hunting (no luck) and Jack and I went on a horse trek around the farm.

Like I said, I did horse camp for two summers, riding twice a day everyday for two weeks. That was 30 years ago ("When you were one, Mommy?" said Brody). This did not prepare my body for the ride we went on yesterday. I have bruises in places I won't be mentioning, but let's just say sitting down is proving to be a problem. Ouch, ouch, ouch. Jack and I did have lots of fun, and the views from high up on the hills were out of this world. Was it worth the pain I'm feeling today? Well....

 

Ferro&Me, Jack&Ziggy