Take II Waitomo- blogged by Tiffany

Wednesday July 1st

Not only did Waitomo offer glow worm caves to explore and climb around in, but it also had one of the most unique places to stay the night. We spent our Waitomo night at Woodlyn Park where you have your choice of staying in a refurbished plane (one of the last allied in Vietnam), train (1950's rail car), ship (WWII Patrol Boat), or hobbit motel (like in Lord of the Rings duh!). We chose the plane and after hearing the sad news that the cock pit motel unit we had booked was having some leak problems, we opted to spend our night in the tail fo the plane. So random but we were all pleasantly surprised to find that the plane was actually quite cozy. We had our own little kitchen, bed with mattress heaters (sweet!), a shower with hot water (FINALLY), a porch, a picnic table, plus a huge electric heater that was basically like having our own little fire to sit around at night and in the morning. All in all I'd say it was a perfect way to round out our unique experience in Waitomo.


The day after our big adventure in the caves we decided to spend the morning exploring a few local sights we hard heard about the day before. First, we headed out to hike to the Mangapohue Natural Bridge. After crossing a very questionable wobbly little bridge whose limit was 5 people, we found ourselves in front of a a huge limestone arch. It was a nice to be able to see what we were climbing for a change! Not only was the arch-way 17m high and spectacular but it was also a neat place to visit because our guide from the Cave tour Bryde had been married there. It was hard to imagine exactly where the wedding happened since all there was were a few short walkways and a very narrow wooden stairway. Guessing it was a pretty quaint get together. Either way, it seemed like the most ideal and appropriate place for two cave guides to get married.

We continued on our way to Marokopa Falls. It was a lot bigger than we all expected, possibly due to the fact that we didn't really have much of an expectation and possibly because of the rainfall from the days before. The Falls were beautiful and on our little hike in we saw a very lush assortment of trees and ferns. We didn't stay long at the Falls since we had a show to catch back at Woodlyn Park- The Billy Black Culture Show!





Talk about a memorable show! The host Billy Black found a way to combine live animals, audience participation, and a bit of factual Kiwi information all into a very entertaining afternoon. It started with some basic history about how timber was cut back in the day. According to Mr. Black, the loggers used to secure planks into the large trees to get some leverage before hacking away at them with their axes. After the little history lesson the show continued with a very cute in-training dancing pig (pigs are actually the 4th smartest animal and dogs are the 12th!), a "kiwi-bear" more commonly known as a possum around these parts, a donkey, a cow named Big-Mac (who will happily live his life out at Woodlyn Park...phew!), and four very naughty little sheep who clearly did not want to listen to the sheepdog or Billy. Not only was it a good time but it was especially fun to see so many of the animals that we see while we're driving along the roads up close and personal.

We finished out our day with a drive up to Hahei. It seems as we go more North, the roads get curvier and narrower. We stopped in a very small, random town of Whangamata where we grabbed a quick bite to eat. A couple eating at the same restaurant seemed surprised to see us there (guessing they don't get too many tourist) and were sweet enough to offer us a place to stay for the night. Since we already had lodging booked we had to continue our way North but nevertheless it was nice to see how sweet all the locals are. We arrived safely in Hahei and all crashed hard after an exhausting two days!