Waitomo Caves

There are very few happenings in Waitomo besides the glowworm caves. They have 2-3 hotels and a couple of cafes, so the reasonable option was to stay 20 minutes away in Otorohanga the night before our adventure in the caves. We pulled into a campground off the main road. The camp hosts were really friendly and gave us lots of helpful pointers…however, they forgot to mention the Kiwi House and Native Bird Park right behind the campground. We read the guest book in the kitchen and quickly got an idea of what our night would be like. One backpacker wrote “Loved the beautiful chorus of birds throughout the night.” Kiwis are nocturnal, but the kiwi houses try to reverse their schedules so visitors can actually see them during the day. Apparently, the new intern’s attempts to reverse the kiwis’ schedule failed miserably because they were talking ALL NIGHT LONG. By 4am, the whole bird park was engaged in excited conversation and any chance of sound sleeping was gone.

On the strong recommendation of our visa sponsor, we signed up for the Haggas Honking Holes tour. We didn’t really catch much of her description except “Indiana Jones in a washing machine”. After suiting up in 8-10mm thick wetsuits, helmets, and white gumboots/wellies (looking fabulous!), we took a practice run repelling down a small hill and headed for the cave entrance. The guides laughed that this particular trip didn’t allow for any time to get used to the equipment and repelling before the big stuff because the cave entrance started with a 65 foot repel down a jagged waterfall. Rachel and I were the last two to descend to the mysterious cave floor. Everyone before us had turned off their lights, so it was tough to tell how much further we needed to go until we dropped into a knee deep pool of water at the bottom. The pace of the trip didn’t slow down and the helmets and thick wetsuits were much appreciated as we bumped our heads, slid through holes slightly larger than me, and crawled on hands and knees through frigid pools enhanced with sharp and rocky edges. After several more repels down waterfalls, we came to a room full of glowworms where our guide (According to another guide, had earned a PhD in glowworms/fungus gnats...wow) gave us a humorous account of the fungus gnat's life. A glowworm isn’t actually a worm at all- it is the larvae of the fungus gnat that drops several sticky fishing lines, like a spider’s web, which glows a blue-green to attract insects for food. The insect flies towards the enchanting light and gets stuck in the fishing line. An adult cannot eat at all, so it spends its entire life (3 days) frantically searching for a mate. After they mate, the female goes off to lay her eggs while the male blissfully heads towards the beautiful glowing lights above and gets caught in a fishing line. After the female lays her eggs, she absentmindedly heads for another set of glowing lights and gets caught in another line, only to be eaten by her unborn niece.

We climbed through a few more tunnels and over some slippery and narrow natural bridges (that would not be allowed in the U.S. without hand rails) and popped out of the cave to a warm afternoon. We showered and headed for Rotorua

Auckland to Raglan

February 22 – March 1

Long story short: our Ford van’s glory days were back when Rachel and I were still in elementary school. We limped our way to Auckland where we traded up from our oil guzzling Ford van to an over-the-top but totally awesome 4x4 turbo diesel van (owned and cared for by a mechanic, but we got an independent inspection just to be safe). He loved our old van and had the parts to make it like new again, so we ended up paying much less for our new van than expected.

During our brief layover in Auckland before heading south, we stopped off at some of the sites we missed during our initial blitz after landing in NZ two weeks prior. We caught the New Zealand symphony in the park along with 150,000 others on a beautiful summer night.


With no plan in mind, we headed south and decided that we’d better take the requisite surf lesson before the temperatures dropped too low with autumn approaching. We headed for Raglan (home of the best left-handed break in the world…which still means nothing to us) and as Lonely Planet predicted, we only expected to stay for one day but ended up staying for several because the laid-back and simple surf town was too friendly and inviting to leave after a day. The small town of Raglan sits quietly on the west coast of the north island and the residents seem to have a hard time fitting jobs into their busy schedule of surfing all morning and lounging at the cafes lining the main street.

We checked into a friendly RV/campground park that sat on the water with a black sand beach. Main street was a short walk across a bridge that passed over a small bay. After finding our campsite, we ran into the kitchen and quickly prepared a meal so we could watch the sun set while eating dinner on the beach. Our timing was perfect and we watched with several others as the sun dropped behind a small hilly peninsula.

In the morning, we headed to the Raglan Surfing School, which had prime real estate perched on top of a hill that looked out on to the classrooms – three of the most popular surfing beaches in New Zealand. First, they led us through dense forest to an old aluminum building with ratty couches set up in stadium seating. They quickly ran through the basics of surfing and had us practice the steps on our own boards. Rachel was delighted to find out that we’d be using foam boards instead of fiberglass boards. She started worrying the night before about falling and knocking her teeth out on the board. With her biggest fear relieved, she’d have no problem standing up.
After our short lesson, we all hopped in the van and drove down the beach for the real thing. We suited up in thick full body wetsuits, grabbed our boards, and headed out into the surf. Unfortunately, there were no hilarious stories about us struggling to stand up. We both got up after a few tries and spent the next couple hours learning how to turn and how to look cool while sitting on a surfboard in the ocean. (We have some videos of surfing, but still need to get cable to transfer)
Tired from paddling all morning, we spent the rest of the day relaxing in town and jumping off the bridge into the bay with the local 6th graders. Our next stop was Waitomo for the world famous glow worm caves.

On our way to Waitomo, we saw a sign for Bridal Veil Falls. Rachel had expressed concerns earlier about not seeing a waterfall yet, so we didn’t even bother to open up the guide book for any wise words. Not knowing what to expect, we walked down a thin path that followed a tranquil stream until the stream abruptly shot over a cliff and fell 180 feet to a pool below. Needless to say, it was a pretty special surprise and we spent about 30 minutes marveling at how much water was coming from the little stream and how it had found its route down.

Dive with the dolphins, Karikari Peninsula, Cape Reigna, Tane Mahuta

Sunday, February 15
We woke up on Sunday to an unseasonably cold and rainy day. We both secretly hoped that our “Swim with the Dolphins” trip would be canceled because swimming in these conditions was not very appealing. There are several operators who run a swim with the dolphins trip and they all have the same guarantee: if you don’t see any dolphins, you get a voucher to come back anytime for a free trip. It was a 3.5hr boat ride that cruised around the Bay of Islands looking in the dolphins’ usual feeding/hanging out spots. If we were lucky and the dolphins were acting playful, we could jump in and swim with them.
Today, Rachel and I were content to sit in the warm cabin of the boat and watch the birds fishing next to us and extravagant homes hidden in private coves. After about 2.5hrs, the captain was looking more desperately and we were afraid they were going to ‘see’ some dolphins far off and call it a successful day. Soon, he came on the loudspeaker to say that the dolphins didn’t seem to be out playing and we’d be getting a free trip. Rachel and I rescheduled for Monday and tried to stay dry for the rest of the day in cafes and shops in Russell.

Monday, February 16
Monday’s weather was better and there were only about 12 people on today’s cruise, half of which were on yesterday’s failed mission, so the crew was especially excited to find some dolphins early and throw us into the water for a swim. It costs $30 extra to swim with the dolphins and from all the pictures we saw it was definitely worth it. We quickly found a pod of about 18 dolphins and we suited up in our masks and snorkels. The captain checked and confirmed that there were no babies in the pod and that they were acting playful. The plan was for everyone to slip quietly into the water (it was news to me that slapping/splashing the water – the way Sandy calls Flipper over – is actually a distress signal and keeps dolphins away) and swim over to the dolphins while making ‘weird and playful’ noises to keep the dolphins interested. Once the boat was in position, the captain told two of the swimmers to get in and swim over to the dolphins. They proceeded to basically do a cannonball into the water and by the time they surfaced the dolphins were 100 meters away. The captain repositioned the boat and had everyone get into the water making ‘interesting noises’. Rachel and I both sucked up a bunch of ocean water hearing the cacophony of the chirping, whistling, moaning coming from the group in unison. There was one especially talented lady who could make bizarre noises while both inhaling and exhaling. Most of the group was laughing so hard at her that we’d forgotten about the dolphins and were just trying to stay afloat.
The second time the boat dropped us off, I was the second swimmer in. I raced out to where the dolphins were and was lucky to see one pass 3 feet in front of me. It actually freaked me out. The water was pretty dark and I didn’t really expect to see a dolphin. As soon as I saw it, I popped up and swam back to where the rest of the group was swimming. I loved the idea of swimming with the dolphins, but not all by myself. By the time I gained enough nerve to swim back to them, they had temporarily disappeared again.
At this point, Rachel and I decided that the companies had come up with these “swim with the dolphins’ trips just to make a quick additional $30 per person because it killed about 1.5hrs worth of time and everyone was so excited about the prospect of swimming with dolphins that the crew didn’t have to continue reciting their script about the surrounding area and problems facing today’s marine wildlife. Anyway, it was quite exciting and we jumped in the third time more laughing at how funny we all looked piling in one after another desperately trying to catch up with the disinterested dolphins.
In the end, we didn’t get to swim and play with the dolphins like the pictures showed…but we ran into a fellow traveler in Auckland who gave us a secret hint about where do swim with dolphins down on the South Island unsupervised. We’ll get back to you about that in a few months. (I’ve gotten some video footage of several events, including swimming with the dolphins, but I just realized I left the cable to transfer video in the US despite the 100+ yards of cables I brought. I’ll upload it as soon as I find a new cable here.)

Tuesday-Friday (February 17-20)

Rain clouds descended on the Northland for our last few days up here, but it was overshadowed by our increasing concerns with our precious van. Our van was now consuming about 1 gallon of oil for every tank of gas. We nervously laughed about what we’d do with our beloved van. I was still baffled by how enormous the sunroof was. Anyway, we headed for the northern tip of NZ, with a two day stop in the Karikari peninsula – a tip given to us by a fellow camper in Russell. She told it was a quiet campground right in the middle of a beautiful cove. It was about a 15mile drive on a gravel road (something we’re getting more and more used to) and it was beautiful. We actually ended up spending an extra day because it was so tranquil. We went swimming and gave the skim board that came with our van a whirl.

Next we headed for Cape Reigna, where you can see the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean violently collide right in front of you…so we heard. It was raining and cloudy, but we walked down the beautifully designed pathway to the lighthouse overlooking the meeting waters. We were lucky to catch a glimpse of some waves crashing on the rocks of the west coast and barely made out the smooth beach on the east coast. At first, it seemed quite simple and unimpressive, but knowing that the nearest landmass was over 1000 miles away and the size of the waves had us frozen and speechless for over 20 minutes.

Despite the rain, it was time for some reckless fun, so we headed for the huge sand dunes along Ninety Mile Beach (actually only 56 miles) for some sand boarding. We rented the boards from a local guy who parks his van at the base of the dunes each day and rents boards to anyone wanting a super fast and fun ride down the steep faces of the dunes. When business is slow, he grabs a board and rides down the best lines himself. He showed us the best line.
Rachel quickly learned how to steer and control speed and beat the owner’s longest run on her third trip down the dunes. It was a long hike up the face and a quick and exhilarating trip down. My first two runs on the bunny slopes were ok but when I tried to keep up with the likes of Rachel and the owner, I crashed and crashed and crashed. My pockets were soon overflowing with sand and my back ached from repeatedly slamming and twisting after each crash.

Our last stop before heading south was Waipoua Forest for Tane Mahuta (God of the Forest). We pulled over at the trail head expecting to walk for about 15 minutes to see a big tree. We walked for less than a minute and saw some a clearing with some people looking at something. We walked out from under the trees and saw the biggest living thing I have ever seen. It was so big that Rachel and I spent 10 minutes trying to take a picture that would somehow depict its size. We were unsuccessful, but the picture below shows Rachel standing about 50 feet in front of the tree. SO BIG!

The Northland

Monday, February 9

We headed north from Auckland on Monday after our orientation, where we were inundated with information about making our year in NZ as fun and comfortable as possible. We had a great first 4 days in NZ, but city living was expensive and we decided to head north to do some requisite fruit picking. Several different people directed us towards Kerikeri at the northern tip of the Bay of Islands because it is famous for its citrus apple orchards and vineyards. We made it to Kerikeri in a very leisurely 2 days with plenty of stops at beaches for swimming and back roads through forests.

Tuesday, February 10
We camped at a small regional park Monday night and woke up to rain beating on the tent. We decided to hold off on breakfast and head for Goat Island Marine Reserve and make breakfast there. Goat Island was NZ’s first marine reserve to protect the over fished area. Now it is a very popular snorkeling and diving area with thousands of fish that can even be seen from the standing on the beach.
We were the first to arrive at the serene cliff side overlooking the reserve. Just as I accidentally lit a HUGE semi-uncontrollable blaze on our camp stove, two tour buses and 5 packed family cars pulled up to watch two panicked Americans rush to put out the fire in this ‘ecologically sensitive area’. Eventually, everything settled down and we enjoyed our scrambled eggs and coffee before heading down to the beach for a quick swim. We continued on a whimsical route north.

Wednesday, February 11
We arrived in the Bay of Islands this morning – New Zealand’s beach playground. On the suggestions of several people, we headed straight to Kerikeri to find work picking fruit. However, upon our arrival we found out that the Northland was actually between seasons and no paid help was needed until the end of March when the vineyards needed assistance picking grapes. Fortunately, we had a couple of options and were excited to try out WWOOF (Willing Workers On Organic Farms), which provides an opportunity to work on an organic farm (varying in size from small self-sufficient homes to larger farms who sell their produce at markets) in exchange for room and board.
After a few calls, we found a couple who owned a woodworking shop and had been so busy with work that several things around the house had been neglected. Our first encounter with Phil and Sandy was quite awkward and actually had Rachel and me anxious to bolt asap. We arrived to their home just as Phil and their 26yr mentally handicapped daughter, Tijani, were going for their daily swim. Sandy didn’t quite have our room ready so she encouraged us to hop in the car and go for a swim. Rachel and I, trying our best to be gracious guests, hopped in with Phil (a man of few words) and took off for a secret swimming hole. It was after I saw Phil’s 7 ½ fingers on the steering wheel and we were driving through a field in the middle of nowhere that images of Texas Chainsaw Massacre flashed through my head. I started panicking and decided that WWOOFing was definitely not for us. We needed to get out of here as soon as possible. We arrived at a trailhead and Phil told us to go ahead down the unmarked path because Tijani was a slow walker and it would take her a while. I was certain at this point that we were walking to the slaughter and started looking around for any sort of weapon.
We made it safely to the swimming hole and it was one of those beautiful places you see in National Geographic that you can really only find with the help of a local. We swam with Tijani, Phil, and their dog before heading back for Dinner. Turns out Phil and Sandy were lovely people and we were really sad to leave them. Their house was also a pretty fascinating place - there was one room in the whole house that had a door. The house was designed and built by Phil as new rooms were needed for their kids. The climate in the Northland allows them to have a completely open-air house and the only water they used was rainwater. (Phil’s missing 2 ½ fingers had come in his 50+ years of woodworking/construction work).

Thursday-Saturday, February 12-14
WWOOFing asks for 4-6hrs of work from the participants each day. It is safe to say that Rachel and I were not overworked. Phil and Sandy’s typical work day involved an obligatory 45min tea break at 10:15 – just an hour after we started work and lunch was to take place exactly at 1pm. After lunch, we were free to do whatever we wanted for the rest of the day. Our work mainly involved trimming and killing willows because they had taken over the stream running behind the house and kept the water from moving. Apparently, you can plant a live willow branch in the ground and a whole tree will grow from this. Over the years, branches had fallen into the stream and trees were growing everywhere. Phil prepared us a chemical treatment to apply to the willows. With a laugh, he told us it was the same Agent Orange used in Vietnam. Rachel and I took turns paddling a dinghy up and down the stream cutting and killing and willows. We spent the afternoons at the nearby beach in Paihia. We left Phil and Sandy’s Saturday afternoon to head for Russell, a small romantic town on the other side of the bay. We had a fun Valentine’s Day dinner at a waterfront restaurant and went to sleep excited for our swim with the dolphins in the morning.

Waiheke Island

Sunday, February 8

While we were killing in time in Auckland, we decided it was a perfect opportunity to take a quick ferry ride to visit the very popular Waiheki Island before heading north. The island plays host to many vineyards and wineries, which are spotted along the rolling hills throughout. Nature has sculpted a unique beach for each particular water sport. The boats drop anchor in the numerous bays and people spend the day lounging on board, swimming on the beach, hiking on the huge network of trails, or relaxing at one of the many charming cafes. Actually, the people we bought our van from had been to NZ previously on an 8 month trip – they too ventured out to Waiheki on one of their first days and ended up spending the entire 8 months on Waiheki. Rachel and I were surprised that they committed their entire trip on the relatively small island when all of NZ beckons for a visit…until we visited.
We hopped off the ferry and walked over to the scooter rental desk. Rachel has wanted to trade in a car for a scooter for years and we figured this would be a good introduction. We hopped on and took off for what ended up being an 8hr island cruise. We stopped immediately for lunch at the famed Lazy Lounge perched on a hilltop looking over one of the bays. We hopped back on, but didn’t make it far before pulling over to take a swim in the Caribbean colored water (Surprisingly, the temperature wasn’t too far off the Caribbean temp either). After our swim, we headed to the far side of the island, passing thousands and thousands of grape vines.
The varying landscape was one of the biggest surprises to us. It started with a laid back beachy atmosphere, then turned into huge rolling hills (reminiscent of northern England), then to an almost rain forest flora (including huge ferns). Cars were scarce on the far reaches of the island and Rachel and I had a blast weaving through hills, valleys, and trees. We stopped by the grocery store right before sunset and had a picnic complete with a Waiheki Cabernet while sitting on the beach.

Made It!

The final hours leading up to our departure were a little more chaotic than I had imagined a month ago. I’m finding out that I have some ailment that prevents me from packing for a trip until the very, very, very last minute. Rachel was completely packed a week before we left, so she sat on the couch reading the newspaper while I was literally running around trying to accomplish 8 things at once. I’ve already discovered several missing items. The only thing that really mattered was making it to the airport on time, something that I have struggled with in the past (causing Rachel a great deal of frustration).

During our 6hr layover in LA, we realized we’d be arriving just in time for one of New Zealand’s biggest holidays. Waitangi Day is a national holiday celebrating the founding document of modern New Zealand – the Treaty of Waitangi of 1840. Among other things, the treaty was meant to create a more harmonious relationship between the native Maori and the late-arriving British. We received an email from our visa sponsor suggesting several festivals for us to attend, so our first full day was already planned for us.

Thursday, February 5
After 30 hours of surprisingly smooth travel, we landed in Auckland on a balmy summer day. Dressed in our winter clothes from Atlanta, we quickly started sweating while waiting for the shuttle to the hostel. The shuttle ride from the airport to downtown gave us quick glimpses of the blue bays and far-off hilly islands. The hostel is one of the best I’ve ever stayed in – it has a job search center (complete with ads for fruit picking, baristas, and guiding various outdoor tours), a full travel agency with cheap budgets in mind, a nice kitchen supplied with all the utensils we’d ever need. They also have some form of entertainment planned for every night.

Friday, February 6
Our bodies were completely confused with the drastic time change. New Zealand is 18-19hrs later than Atlanta/Texas, respectively. We forced ourselves to stay awake until 10pm on Thursday and we were wide awake at 5:15 the next morning. We went for a long walk through one of the nearby parks and ate at a little café. We came back to the hostel to change clothes and took off for a day of Waitangi celebration. The first festival was on a park along the beach with Maori music, food, and games.
As we walked back to the hostel, we saw a young couple sitting in a beautiful small Ford van with a For Sale sign on it. We were exhausted from the 7 mile walk, sitting in the sun, and the time change, but Rachel decided we needed to talk to them about this gem. We had always planned on buying a van to travel through NZ, but we didn’t expect to start looking until the weekend was over. The couple ended up being from Norwich, England, the same small city where I spent my junior year of college. He asked if we wanted to take it for a drive around the block, but we deferred thinking that driving on the opposite side with our exhaustion in a big city would be a little too much. He took us for a quick spin and it was perfect!




Saturday, February 7
Again, we woke up around 5:30 without a hope of going back to sleep. I went for a long sunrise walk through a park that looks out over Auckland while Rachel went for a run along the waterfront.
We met up with English couple selling the car and actually spent a good portion of the day with them. After exchanging the money and title to the car, we instantly headed out of the city to re-learn how to drive. We spent hours driving through the quieter neighborhoods and country. We pulled over along the beach and had a lovely picnic on the bed in the back of the van. The van came complete with a stove, kitchenware, foldable chairs, curtains, fishing poles, and a sunroof that opens half the length of the van! By the time we got back, we only had enough energy to cook dinner and stumble back up to bed. We think we’ll be pretty much back to normal by Mon or Tues. We will head north out of Auckland on Monday morning after our official introduction to NZ from our visa sponsor.