Glowworms, Rotten Eggs, & Volcanoes

Well, we completely forgot to mention the astonishing glowworms we saw a couple of weeks ago. They are only found in caves here in NZ and are an amazing sight to behold. The worms are tiny, white and glow a bright green light on their tails. They reminded us of lightening bugs, just for the fact that they also glow, but their glowing is actually caused by their poop that they use to attract a mate. They spend their whole lives in the darkness of the caves. After we walked deep into a dark, damp cave, we turned our flashlights off and looked up at the ceiling. It was amazing! Glowworms were everywhere! It was just like looking up at the stars.
A couple of days ago, we were walking an old rail car trail that had been used for mining in the past. This walk took us through old tunnels high up in a hillside that were used to transport quartz by rail carts pulled by oxen. The tunnels were about 100 yards long and very dark! We walked quite a few feet, clinging onto each other, (actually, we were all holding onto Bart as he lead the way!) in pitch black darkness before (literally) seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! My fear was that Ash would lose his flip flop while walking and we would never find it! We also had a few glowworms with us there in the dark, but they only provided a distraction, deffinitly not enough light to see anything! The boys loved following the rail tracks and crossing the swinging bridges on that walk.

We spent two nights in Mt. Maunganui which is actually a town with a volcano that sits out on a peninsula and offers amazing views of the coast. We walked around the base and it was such a nice walk with slightly rolling hills and great views, that we decided to try and jog it the next morning. Matthijs and Ash did great! It was about 2 miles and Ash did the whole thing! Matthijs left us in the dust and did extra as he turned around at the end and jogged back to us. Now, I’ve got some jogging partners when we get back home! That same evening we walked up to the top and back down the volcano and that took 1.5 hours without stopping. The boys slept good that night! And then the next morning we jogged it again...

The next couple of days we visited Lakes Rotorua and Taupo. This is the area of the country that has the most geothermal activity. The whole town of Lake Rotorou was lovely, but due to all the steaming fumaroles in the area, a smell like rotten eggs hung over the town. We were so glad that we were only there for one day! We also went to a park with boiling pools of mud, water, gysers, and water pools of various colors like bright green, orange, and yellow. The colors seemed so unnatural, but they are all due to the various mineral elements found in this area. It was all very interesting. Actually, Matthijs’ exact words when I asked if he liked it were, “I think this is much more spectacular for grown-ups.” Maybe so... although, the bright green pool did leave a bigger impression on them than anything else.

The lakes in the area were gorgeous and like the ocean, they are so incredibly clear, clean and blue. Beautiful black swans were swimming everywhere, which is very rare to see.
We only have one week to go in the north island, and that is being spent in the wine area from Napier on south. We are enjoying every minute of it, but we can’t wait to head to the less populated and even more spectacular south island.