Auckland was
a tough one to decide what to do. City and/or coastal or countryside tour with
waterfalls, Mt Eden, seeing the largest colony of the Muriwai Takapu Gannets
and more!
We opted for
an all day tour to the Waitomo Valley to experience the Glow-Worm Caves. I
booked with a company called Milestone Tours who provide our tour for the day
and the cave portion is handled by Spellbound. www.glowworm.co.nz/ www.milestonetours.co.nz/
Here is a
description of our tour:
“If there
is time we will stop first at Otorohanga Native Bird Sanctuary. On the drive to Waitomo we add a stop in the
pretty village of Pirongia, which has an excellent bakery. We usually recommend
that our guests pick-up a sandwiches, pies, wraps and or cakes etc. to eat
during the morning tea stop during the Spellbound tour (between caves) – for which
purpose we carry picnic blankets and chilly-bins. We also supply snacks on
board, just to keep everyone going.
Here is a
description of the Spellbound Tour:
Our glowworm display is
spellbinding and incomparable!
Glide
gently through this extraordinary cave and experience Waitomo's largest,
brightest and most breathtaking glowworm display. Don't miss seeing the cave
chosen for the BBC's 'Planet Earth' series, taking its place among exceptional
caves of the world.
Our
glowworm cave has 3 to 4 times more glowworms than any other glowworm cave
option anywhere. We are the only company to offer extended glowworm viewing in
darkness through most our 45 minutes in the cave.
It
takes at least 20 minutes for your eyes to adjust completely to glowworm light,
with such exceptional glowworms on display, it's worth taking some time.
Closer
glowworms are brighter glowworms – ours are close enough to light up the whole
cave.
The
Cave of the Spirit, Te Ana o te Atua, complements our glowworm cave by
showcasing speleothems, fossils and beautiful natural light effects. This
thoughtfully designed cave presentation can make you forget you are actually in
a tourist cave.
Our TWO
CAVE TOUR includes the Spellbound Glowworm Cave and The Cave of the Spirit.
Tour
time – 3 ¼ hours
We’re
offering a creatively and thoughtfully arranged sequence of travel, caves,
glowworms and walks which combine to make a fun and memorable whole 3 1/4 hour
experience.”
Joining
us today are Marianne, Jeff & Julie, Dennis & Bonnie, Rita & Frank
and Jim.
We were
up early and ready to get off, but the ship wasn’t cleared until about 30
minutes later than planned, so we weren’t able to stop at the Kiwi House to see
the birds. Our guide thought our ship left later than 5:00 (all aboard at
4:30), so when we explained that we wanted to be back by around 4:00 Ewald of
Milestone tours called Spellbound, the company doing our Glow-worm tour and
they rearranged our trip for us so we could maximize our time. Our guide was
Terry and he was fantastic. Very knowledgeable and during the 2½ hour drive to
Waitomo Valley he pointed out things and told us all about New Zealand and as
we neared the caves he explained more about the glow-worms.
We
stopped on the way at a bakery to pick up sandwiches and desserts for a picnic
later.
We
started with the walk through Cave of the Spirit. Then we drove to a spot where
we had a quick picnic lunch. Then we walked the short distance to the Glow-worm
cave where we got in a Zodiac type boat and were amazed by the sheer number of
the glow-worms and with no lighting in the cave it seemed illuminated by their
glowing lights. Since they are hard to photograph and once in the cave in the
dark you can’t take photos, they are sending us an email with some of their
photos. Then, it was time to take the scenic ride back to Auckland. The
countryside was full of dairy cattle, sheep, goats and geese. (or what we
assumed were geese in the distance) Beautiful countryside with hills and
mountains. It normally is a bit greener, but they haven’t had as much rain as
usual and it was a bit dry. Still very beautiful. Some of our group wanted to
stop for wine and other things in a store, so Terry found us a nice store to
shop quickly for a few things.
We were
back to the port by a bit after 4:00, so we had about 20 minutes to try and
find a quick souvenir and use up the rest of our New Zealand dollars. Got some
very nice chocolates.
To
bookend our day, the sail in this morning was spectacular. Gorgeous sunrise and
the city lights were beautiful. Sail away this evening was very scenic with
tons of sailboats against the backdrop of the city. Auckland is known as the
“City of Sails” and I can see why! It was hard to pull ourselves away from the
beauty, but we needed to quickly change for dinner and the evening show which
was a comedian named Big Daddy Jeff Wayne. While not bad, he really isn’t my
type of comedy. (style of Jerry Lewis, Red Skelton etc.)
Now for
3 more sea days before we hit Burnie, Tasmania.
Greg is
finally over his bronchitis/cold thing he had, now I have it. Many people on
the ship have this croupy sounding cough. Today was my worst day so far. Before
I just had the annoying cough, but today my nose is running like crazy. ARGH!
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