Day 40: 0 Day Hiking Pole Hunt

Sunday, January 8

Today I woke up around 7 and blogged and did some work on the computer. None of the outdoors shops in Hamilton opened until 10 am so I wasn't in a hurry. 

Luckily it's pretty normal to sell single poles in New Zealand - maybe because their trails can be so rough and snap poles like twigs? All their cheapest poles were within a few dollars of each other, so I bought one from Trek N Travel. I think I would have saved $2 buying the one at Kathmandu, but I liked the Trek N Travel one a little better and the owner there is so nice.

My most important task for the day was complete by noon and my bus to Waitomo wasn't until 4:15. I wandered over to the i-SITE to get information about the glow worm caves and then I wandered back to the hostel to put my trekking pole with my pack and mooch off their awesome wifi to book a glow worm trip.

The least expensive and most relaxing glow worm trip seemed to be the good old Waitomo Caves Tour. Other companies have trips with rafting and tubing and rappelling but the Waitomo one takes you in a boat and is in the original cave. And how are you supposed to enjoy glow worms if you're focusing on rafting or rappelling? Another huge perk of the Waitomo Caves was that they had tickets for a 7 pm tour available. That would give me enough time to arrive on the bus, drop my bag off at the hostel, and walk back to Waitomo Cave.

After booking the tour, I decided to spend a few hours at the Good George Brewery in town. The one in Cambridge was so good and I could get a sampler and sit and post blogs. They had great wifi there so I ended up getting a delicious pizza with salmon on it too. I left in time to get my bag from the hostel and get to the transportation centre before 4. Around 5:20 I made it to Waitomo.

As I walked off the bus I saw the smiling faces of Julia and Puff Puff! While I was on the bus they had told me they were eating pizza in Waitomo and planned to stay at the YHA, but I didn't think I'd see them til after I finished with the glow worms. We caught up since we'd seen each other at the hut and checked out the Waitomo General Store. They seem to have lots of things you can order there and eat, but barely had any food items to purchase for making your own meals. It's really more of a cafe than any kind of general store. But outside of it there was a giant jenga and the three of us played a game of it (with our backpacks on!).

We were pretty good at jenga, so it took awhile for it to fall down. We set it back up and headed for the hostel. As soon as we checked in, I dropped my backpack on a bed and walked back to the Waitomo Caves. I got there a few minutes early so I bought an ice cream.

Devin led our tour of 7 people through the cave. It was wonderful! We got to walk around a place where the bigger groups don't get to go. I learned about glow worms, saw stalactites and stalagmites, and saw the glow worms. The tour begins by walking through some sections of the cave where there are only a few glow worms. We went through the cathedral (the tallest area of the cave) and Devin sang a bit of a song. It was amazing! At Christmas they have a choir come in and cram in 200 chairs for people to watch.

After the cathedral he showed us a patch of glow worms and shined his flashlight on them to show the strings that hang from them. They catch flies with it that are attracted to their glow because they think it's a way out of the cave.  

The trip ends with a boat ride under the most glow worm-filled section of the cave. Devin told us we wouldn't need to fight for room on the boat since there were only 7 of us, so I asked him which side of the boat was better - not really knowing how the boat was laid out. It's a smaller boat than I imagined with 5 or 6 benches that could fit 4 or so people each if it was a big group. Since the other six people in the tour were couples, Devin thought they should each get their own bench and I'd get one to myself. He said the best thing to do is to lie on your back and look up at them so I did. It was amazing! Like looking at something better than a planetarium. They glow blue-ish and are a little brighter and bigger than stars in the night sky. The ceiling was just filled with them. It was mesmerizing.

After the tour I walked back to the hostel. Julia and Puff Puff were sitting on a couch. Puff Puff was blogging and Julia was watching Shawshank Redemption. The movie was almost over and is one of my favorites! There were at least 10 people sitting around the tv watching it.

Once it was over we made a plan for tomorrow and went to bed. Hopefully we'll make it a little ways past Te Kuiti tomorrow. 

A neat mural I saw in Hamilton on my trekking pole hunt.  

This has to be the best designed optometrist branding I've ever seen!  

We got the giant jenga almost as tall as Julia.  

Timber!  

We couldn't take photos of the glow worms but here's a section of the cave.  

Me in the un-glowworm-filled section of the glowworm cave.