Finally I am leaving Auckland for good, never to return, maybe except to fly out of. I arrived in Juno Hall backpackers of Waitomo by noon, and headed out to explore the area. Waitomo is the home of the glowworm caves. Glowworms are these larvae that are unique to New Zealand. They emit light to attract their food and you can see tons of them in the dark caves. I went on a 30 minute tour of the Waitomo glowworm caves which was a brief walk through the caves with some informative, yet dry, commentary, followed by an even briefer boat ride through the glowworm grotto to view the glowworms. The most interesting part of it all is learning that when these glowworms turn into adult flies, they die of starvation after 2 days because its creator forgot to give them a mouth.
After the glowworm caves, I set out to find the trailhead for the Waitomo walkway. On my way up the road, a car whizzed by me and some lady behind the wheel gave me one of those stick-your-neck-out stares. It didn't occur to me until a second later that it was Claire and Dave!! They recognized me as well and came to a skidding stop. Claire and Dave were 2 English folks on my 3 week Cape to Vic Falls tour with Nomads. We got all excited about bumping into each other like this and chatted a bit, made plans to see each other in Rotorua the next day, and split off. I knew they were in New Zealand, but never thought I'd run it to them like this. What a small world.
The Waitomo walk itself was a short trek through the hillsides where you can see many sheep and cows grazing in the grass. The walk leads you to the Aranui caves, which were closed by then, and onto another walk. The next bush walk took me into a natural underground cave viewing platform. I was inside a cave all to myself, with no other tourists. This is what I liked. Apparently, if you come here at night, there are glowworms in this cave too. I could have seen them for free!!
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