Waitomo and the Glow Worm Caves

The next day we were up early, and all plans going to see the sunrise at hot water beach were shattered as the pitch black deterred us completely. We had an early start and had to be on the bus for 8am for the long drive to Waitomo, something we were incredibly excited for.
Waitomo (meaning "Dark Water") is known for its deep underground limestone caves which are filled with thousands of glow worms, and where you can go black water rafting. This was one of the things we had seen on the internet, and was one of the activities and sights that drew us to travel New Zealand.

Our Kiwi bus was completely full that day, as some people on the bus in front of us had stayed a few days and now joined our bus. Isabelle from our room in Hot Water Beach joined our bus, as well as another English couple, Natalie and Sam, American cousins Alex and Ryan, and Irish buddies Niall and Niall.

On the way to Waitomo we stopped at the Karangahake scenic reserve walk, which took about an hour and included a walk through a long dark tunnel.

Amy, Annie, Steph, Mark and Tom

It was a beautiful walk, and another free attraction Arius insisted we see.

When we eventually got to Waitomo, we went to the black water rafting center to enquire about the prices of the trips. The caving experience is not cheap, but as it was something we desperately wanted to do, we didn't want to cut any corners.

There are trips varying in difficulty and in length.
The Black Labyrinth trip is 3 hours and includes tubing, glow worms and waterfalls for $128
The Black Odyssey tour is one where you keep dry and do some climbing high up in the caves for 5 hours at $179
We decided to do the 5 hour Black Abyss trip, that does the climbing, the waterfalls, the tubing, the glow worms and everything for $231.
With the Kiwi experience you do get discounted prices, so ours was a little cheaper than this.

We got kitted up and ready to go on our 5 hour underground adventure. We were given wetsuits, booties, hard hats with lights and climbing equipment. We met our two female guides, who were once again very cool and laid back. One of the girls actually had a hand missing, so we ignorantly thought she wouldn't be able to do some of the tour. We unfortunately cannot remember their names but they were both fantastic!

Top L to R: The two Irish Nialls', couple Natalie and Sam, Mark and Tom
Bottom L to R: Mindy and Steph

The first part of the journey had to be driven too, so we were briefed on the way about we could expect. We arrived in the middle of a field, and were slightly confused as to what would happen next. We had a small training ground to practice the giant absail into the cave, so we did this a couple of times before being shown to a group of rocks and trees. Beneath us, was a small hole that was apparently the entrance to the caves. One of the guides went first, whilst the other one set us all up and lowered us down into the hole, taking a picture as we went! The guide with one hand was the one to lower us, and to watch her adapt and maneuver the equipment was amazing, we soon realised that with even one limb missing, she was one of the best and skilled climbers we would ever meet, and this just made her ability even more amazing.

We were lowered down into the hole, and as it got darker, the space got smaller and smaller. You had to contort yourself round an awkward bend, and suddenly you were out in the open surrounded by nothing, but gaping space below you!

The abseil down was pretty scary! As it was dark and cold, and you couldn't hear anyone above or below you. It was a slow abseil down feeling your way around the awkward shaped rocks.
 When at the bottom we gathered again as a group and carried on through the caves. We walked over slat of wood that had a drop below that you couldn't imagine the height of. The next step was a zip line where the end was impossible to see.

This was another leap of faith we had to make, as you were about to be zooming through a small hard cave with jagged rocks in the dark. The first to go was one of the Nialls, and as he bravely took the leap of faith, the girls screamed "WE"RE NOT READY", turned the lights off, and screamed. Thankfully they were only joking, and got cheap thrills out of scaring their customers, but for a split second, we really thought that was the end of Niall.

We went down one by one, zooming through the dark, and ending in a huge cavern, where the glowworms started to gather! Once again the guide with one hand amazed us, as she was last to go down on the zipline, and at the end she managed to run up a wall and flip!

Here, we had a little break, where we were given hot chocolate and the TASTIEST flapjacks we have ever eaten in our lives! We sat on the edge of a rock where there was an eiree black river below us. We enjoyed our warm snacks, and were then slightly horrified when the girls said that we would need it for warmth, as we were about to jump into that cold dark river!

We all grabbed a rubber tube, and one by one jumped into the water. They were not lying, the water was absolutely freezing, and we had to regularly stop to do warm up exercises!



 We played a few games with the tubes, as we waded through the dark cave. We even stopped for a photo opportunity with a rock that looked like Gandalf, although it doesn't look anything like him in the picture!

The white rock above our heads looks like Gandalf apparently!

When we got to the end of the cave, the guide told us to sit in our tubes and make a line by holding onto each others legs. Once we were ready, she told us to turn off the lights on our helmets and look up. We did as she said, and we were all speechless as the galaxy of glowing worms above us was breathtaking.

Unfortunately as we didn't have nice lighting like they do when they photograph the caves professionally, the only pictures the guides managed to get of the glow worms was this one which could easily be mistaken for some rubbish disco lights.

However this is what it really looks like to the naked eye, and what we saw when we looked to the roof of the cave.

Photos from the Waitomo Website.

It was one of the most breathtaking spectacles we have ever seen, and the guide navigated us in complete darkness back to the area where we had eaten our snacks. She was so informative about the glow worms, and explained that although they look pretty, it is actually their fecal matter that glows, so in reality we were all staring in amazement at worm poo! She also told us about the strings they leave to hang down, in order to catch their food, which again were quite pretty to look at! 

Staring up at the glow worms provided great distraction to the freezing cold water, but we needed to keep moving to warm ourselves up. Here came the more active part of the adventure. We climbed up rocks, waded through small tunnels, slid down the slides they had placed in the caves and belly flopped into cold pools by jumping from rocks.

hahahahahahahahaha

It was hard work, but the adrenaline was pumping and it kept us going. At one point, things got really claustrophobic, and we had to squeeze through some tiny holes to get through, there was also another way through but most of the group powered through and did it. On the other side, we realised we were not alone in the caves, as a giant eel swam past us making us feel quite uneasy!

attempting to write 'Basement' as it was the only 8 letter word we could think of

We were given regular snack breaks to keep our energy levels up, and the girls were really patient if there were any section anyone struggled with. They had high spirits the whole time, even though they do this mammoth 5 hour expedition 3 times a day in the dark and cold!

The final part of trip was to get out of the cave. This meant climbing up a vertical hole in the ceiling just holding onto to the rocks around you, and with no pulling equipment. Not only this, you also had to climb against the raging waterfall that was coming down on top of you. It was difficult, but so incredibly fun!

We eventually emerged to the surface of the cave at 8pm, in the pitch dark!

We were taken back to the center to grab our clothes and a warm shower! We thanked the girls for their amazing tour, and Mark told them they were the coolest people he'd ever met. They provided us with hot soup, toast and played the pictures from our trip whilst we ate. We finished on a high, and were so happy we chose to spend the extra money to do the best trip as it was one of our highlights of New Zealand.

The same couldn't be said for American Alex on our bus however. He had done the Black Abyss in the slot before us, and managed to dislocate his shoulder when doing some of the climbing!!

We found him later on that evening feeling pretty happy after the injection they'd given him to numb the pain, however he still said he had thoroughly enjoyed the experience! That night we were exhausted from our day, and wanted to get in an early night, as the following day was another we were looking forward too! We would be headed to Rotorua to do the Maouri experience that evening, but on the journey there, we would be going to the infamous Hobbiton!

Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove

Our next destination was Hot Water Beach, one of lonely planets top 10 beaches in the world! The beach is famous for being able to dig yourself a pool, and have warm water surround you like a bath! Our new driver for the Kiwi bus was Arius, and he was a cool and honest guy about some of the activities. If he liked it it, it was "choice" which means pretty good to Kiwis!

The drive from Auckland to Hot Water Beach wasn't too long, and it was a great opportunity to get to know our friends some more. Again, we drove threw some beautiful places, with Arius telling us about the surrounding areas.

 Arius also told us the activity opportunities on Hot Water Beach. He said there was the legendary Cathedral Cove just a 45 minute walk down from Hot Water Beach. He said the walk was very pretty, but the best way to get there was to kayak there, in the crystal clear waters of the marine reserve, where there was also the potential to spot dolphins, seals, and maybe even whales! This sounded exciting, so ourselves and Mark signed up to do it for $85.00 each.

The accommodation at Hot Water Beach were little cabins for up to 6 to share. The two of us with Mark included were in one room, with John and David, two lovely lads from the bus, but we were also joined by a woman called Isabelle, who had been in Hot Water Beach a few days, and who thought Mark looked like Maralin Manson without the makeup!! We had time to dump our bags before being picked up by the kayaking company to do our trip! David and Isabelle from our room would be joining us, as well as traveller Mindy was going to be doing the trip with us so she document it on her blog.

We were taken to a beach, where we met another cool Kiwi called Hayden, who was a long haired surfer dude. He told us how to use our Kayaks and how to wear the equipment. Tom and Steph shared a Kayak, Mark went with David, Isabelle went with another girl who joined the trip and Mindy went with Hayden, and we set off into the crystal clear waters of the Marine reserve. As it was coming into Winter, the water was VERY cold, and kayaking against some of the waves to get into the depths was a chilly experience! Nevertheless, the sun was shining for us, and the afternoon light made it a very beautiful trip. 

We would occasionally stop and gather our Kayaks together so Hayden could tell us about some of the geography and wildlife surrounding the marine reserve. At one point, he was talking, and Mindy and Steph were shaking excidedly and whispering to eachother at the front of the Kayaks. They had seem a burst of water come from the water a way in front of us, and were convinced it was the blow holes of a whale.

We had to just kayak around a corner before we were in Cathedral Cove, so we powered as fast as we could to get a glimpse of the supposed whale. As we neared the cove however, we realised it was a rogue snorkeller, who had dived deep down and come up and blown water out of his snorkel. Thankfully we saw the funny side, but we were more concerned as to what he was doing in the chilly waters!

We pulled up to the shore, where we could admire the beautiful naturally formed arch. Unfortunately Tom's GoPro had drops of water on the lens from Kayaking, and Steph's camera was out of battery, so our pictures from Cathedral Cove are all stolen! Here is one we had to get of Google to show the full rock jutting out with the large archway carved in.

Lots of people take their wedding pictures under this iconic arch, hence it's name Cathedral Cove. There are also some beautifully carved rocks around the area that sit peacefully in the sea. Here are some of Mindy's pictures from the day

You may also recognise the scenery from a music video by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Hayden explained one day he kayaked up to the beach to find a random chair on the beach. As there was no one there, he decided he would tie it to the back of his Kayak and take it home. Just as he had it slung over his shoulder, he was chased by film directors explaining its use for the music video. Have a look and spot it below.

Whilst at the beach, we met up with some of our other friends who were on the bus, who had decided to do the walk. We agreed to meet them back at the hot water beach later on, for a legendary natural spa session. We took a few pictures and looked around, and played in a small waterfall on the beach, when Hayden called us over to a picnic spot he'd made. He bought supplies for making hot drinks in his Kayak, and was also an undercover Barista! He could list of more drinks than Starbucks and also did cute smiley faces on our drinks as well as bringing some homemade biscuits for us to dunk which were delicious.

This added touch was a really cosy and unexpected bonus, and we appreciate the effort he went too to make sure we got the most out of Cathedral Cove.

We finished up our drinks, which gave us the energy to kayak back round to Hot Water Beach. We now had a time limit as we wanted to enjoy the Hot Water Beach with everyone else on our bus. With another tiresome effort to get past the waves, we took another scenic route back home, where Hayden took us to a small tunnel on the edge of a large rock, which we were able to kayak through. We also spotted some baby seals perched on the rocks, as well as having the afternoon sun beating down on us.

It was a really lovely trip, and although we didn't see much wildlife, is was a really nice way to see Cathedral Cove, as well as a good workout!

We got back to Hot Water Beach and made our way down to the beach where we found throngs of people sitting in a pool. There was already a large one dug, so everyone was piled into that one.

The Hot Water Beach has volcanic lava running underneath it deep deep down. You wouldn't be able to dig deep enough to get to it (neither would you want to), but it means it heats up the water that is under the sand, which makes it such a famous New Zealand destination.

We nestled down and dug our feet in to the sand, to find the water was actually scorching hot! To put into perspective how hot it was, legend has it that when the first explorers came to New Zealand, the Maouri tribes captured them, and actually boiled them alive in this pools... ouch.

Iqra, John, David, Mark, Tom, Steph, Annie, Charlotte and Izzy

We were at Hot Water Beach just at sunset, so we watched the sunset from our warm pools which was a lovely experience.

Another one of Mindy's spectacular pictures of Hot Water Beach.

That night we had the idea to get up at 5am and watch the sun rise from the hot pools, however, we would see how that panned out at the crack of dawn. That evening we spent cooking and playing a few games of cards in our little lodge. The following day was one we had been eagerly anticipating, The Waitamo caves!

Paihia and the Bay of Islands

We woke up in Auckland, and checked out of our hostel. The bus stop for the kiwi experience bus was literally outside Base, so we eagerly waited outside while a few people started to emerge and wait with us.

One thing about Auckland high street, is that it is full of homeless people, often on drugs and who tend to be quite loud and volatile. Usually we ignored them, but one woman throwing a tomato at another homeless man, made for a good conversation starter with the other people waiting. Here we met Charlotte, a girl from England who was very posh and very smiley. We also met Aki, a crazy american girl. The bus finally arrived and we got on and met our driver Jared, who looked just like Mark's dad which made us feel more at ease.

We jumped on the bus and met a few people who would end up being our best buddies on our New Zealand adventure, and although we didn't know it then, having to spend a few unexpected days in Auckland would be the best thing that happened to us as it meant we got to spend our time with these people!

We started our journey to the Bay of Islands, and Jared was really enthusiastic about our trip ahead, and got us all excited! The drive took up most of the day, but it was good opportunity to get to know all of the people on the bus.

The nice thing about New Zealand, is the plethora of free activities. On pretty much every journey we went on, you were sure to pass a free walk that would take only an hour or so, and the Kiwi Experience make sure you stop and do all of them, as they often end in seeing some beautiful New Zealand landscape. On the way to Paihia, Jared stopped and urged us to go out and take a look at a Whangarei waterfall. This would be the first of many we would see.

As we reached Paihia, the weather started to deteriorate, as we were coming into NZ winter time. Jared said there was an optional paid activity to go dolphin watching that afternoon we arrived. As the weather wasn't great, we decided to opt out, but a few of the others decided to go.
 Jared also told us there was a day trip we could go on the following day, that took you to the very tip top of New Zealand, 'Cape Reinga' where the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean met. It was an expensive extra, but it included sand boarding, which we all really wanted to do, plus some extras on 90 mile beach, and the promise of the best fish and chips in the north island at the end. With all of those packed into one trip, we could hardly say no, so we signed our names down on the list to go the following day.

We arrived at Paihia, and were staying in another Base. The three of us were given a room to share with Aki and Mindy, a super cool Canadian girl who had been living in New Zealand for four years already. After unpacking and settling into our dorm with an attached bathroom, we got talking to Mindy. It turned out she was actually being paid by Kiwi Experience to do the trip, as she had started a travel blog when she left Canada, and it had become quite popular on the net. They wanted her to write about all the cool things you could do on the Kiwi Experience, and she showed us her amazing page 'Wings Of a Feather', which you can find in our 'Things we Like' tag on the right sidebar.

That night, we decided to have a few drinks in the bar, where we met a strange fellow who went by the name of both Felix and Jack. He assured us he could do the best British accent, and kept repeating the phrase "hot crispy toast mate", which to this day still baffles us. With him and a few people on our bus, we played a few drinking games, that escalated into another boozy evening, that ended up us being taught how to twerk and sexy dance by Aki, and also going to bed quite late again.

The next day we regretted our decision to stay up late, as the day trip to Cape Reinga included a lot of driving, and we mostly slept for the first bit of the day, missing some of the pretty scenery. We did however have a new driver for this leg off the trip, who went by the name 'Dice' and who was the loveliest fellow you ever could meet. He was good fun and made plenty of jokes, and was also sympathetic to those of us who had heavy heads.

The North Island looked to us very similar to Cornwall England, as it was mostly seaside towns, and the temperamental weather was one we were very familiar too in the UK. The first stop was to Cape Reinga itself, the tip of the islands.

This was considered a sacred place by the Maouri's, so you had to be respectful when up there. According to mythology, once you died, the dead spirits would travel to Cape Reinga on their journey to the afterlife, which was accessed by leaping of the head of Cape Reinga. It was really windy but the views of the sea were amazing, and the small little lighthouse made for a postcard perfect picture.

The two seas merging together. There was a myth a huge beast lived here.

Next we drove onto the 90 mile beach which is firstly not actually 90 miles long, and is also considered an official highway in New Zealand, with top speed being 100KPH, and is often used by lorries and cars alike, although they have to be special sand proof vehicles like the bus we had was. Dice explained to us beautifully that it is always the oldest and newest road in the world, which was slightly profound. We zoomed down the beach stopping along the way to paddle in the sea and take some more pictures.

After this was the bit we had all been waiting for, the sand boarding! Dice drove around looking for some good dunes for us to board, as he explained the wind changed them everyday so there was never just one good spot. He found a good bit which was very high, and parked up and unloaded the boards. We were so excited for the sand boarding, but the tiring trek up through the deep sand to get the the top made us realize maybe just one go would be enough. 

When we got to the top, the wind was blowing sand right into our eyes, and we had to hold on tightly to the boards so they didn't blow away! Once we had a go and got down the dunes, we were having a great time, racing each other down the hill. Tom managed to fall off and actually hurt himself a bit, as you will see in the video below!

Steph went down one time completely 360ing along the way. On our second go we took turns racing eachother.

  It was great fun, but with hair and clothes covered in sand, we knew the journey back was not going to be a comfortable one.

After our late night and action packed day, the journey back was a drowsy one, however the promise of the best fish and chips kept us going.

On the way, Dice let us stop off somewhere for us to change our sandy clothes and to look in a gift shop. He explained that this was a very special gift shop, as inside was a huge staircase carved out of the middle of the tree. We excitedly went inside to have a look, and there were other impressive wooden sculptures in there selling for extortionate prices. There was also a small art gallery so we spent a while here.







After another short drive, we arrived and ordered our food and enjoyed, indeed some very good fish and chips from Mangonui Fish Shop. On the road we had parked it had a fake 'Penguins Crossing' sign which got Mark and Steph very excited as we had heard that penguins could be found in New Zealand )in the deep south not the most northerly point!) Steph excitedly told the driver she thought she'd seen a penguin to which he explained that the sign was fake, and crushed her hope and dreams about potentially finishing the day seeing a penguin.



From here, we went back to Paihia and all had very early nights after our long day. The next we were leaving and going back to Auckland which we were not overly thrilled about having spent 4 days there prior. However this time we would be some of our new buddies, so we had hopes of it being better! The next day we would leave early at 9am, to get to Auckland for the late afternoon.

As we had won our free weeks accommodation, we decided to stay at Base despite the Kiwi buses preferred stay at Nomads. Our new friends decided to join us, and also had a go at spinning the wheel to win some prizes. No more free weeks accommodation was won, however lots of drink vouchers were won again, despite us all saying we didn't fancy a heavy night after the last few days! That evening there was a pub quiz on upstairs in the hostel, so we all attended. Ourselves along with Mark turned up late so had to go on a team with a man called Ray who was the maintenance man at Base, and a fellow backpacker called Jimmy who had a slight madness in his eyes. The others got into a team by themselves, so the war was on. Thankfully with the help of handy man Ray, we managed to answer some of the ridiculously hard rounds (he must have done the quiz a few times) and with a few lucky answers, we managed to win! The prize was a $100 bar tab at good old Habana Joes which we had attended our last time in Auckland. As the others had their drink vouchers, once again we ended up having a boozy night down in the bar, along with handy Ray and crazy Jimmy who looked like he would kill a man with his bare hands after a few drinks.

Thankfully that night there was no locking out of rooms, and we all got a good nights sleep despite having a boozy evening. Our driver for the Bay of Islands Jared only covered the top part of the island, so tomorrow we would have a new driver.

We woke up feeling rough again, and with a quick Starbucks stop, the Kiwi bus arrived and out jumped our new driver Arius, a cool Kiwi. We boarded the bus, and made our way to a place called Hot Water Beach.