Auckland, NZ

The cruise ended in Auckland. We were up early and off the ship. Our flight was not until evening, so we decided to do a tour through the ship. We chose an all day trip…it was a long bus ride, but we went to the Waitomo area.

First, they took us to Woodlyn Park. They call this place “A World Unique Attraction”. That is a good description. You drive up a long gravel driveway onto a ‘farm’ type property. The bus stops at the entrance and you are escorted into a large building with concrete floors. To the right is a ‘theater’ with old wood and leather seats and some old curtains hiding the stage area.

After a while, the show starts…it’s a guy in jeans, boots and a tank top. What he tells you about is the way the Kiwis used to do things in the old days. He shows you the sawing process, the tree climbing process, etc. etc. Then he brings in the animals…does some pig tricks, dog tricks, and sheep herding. Then with some assistance from some audience volunteers, he shears a sheep. The show was quite interesting and entertaining. My explanation does not do it justice.

The ‘farm’ also has some motel rooms…in a hobbit house, a boat or a plane. You can see all of this at http://www.waitomomotel.co.nz/.

Next, we went to Waitomo Caves. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. The Waitomo Caves is a series of limestone caves with stalactites and stalagmites. They tour you through the caves and up and down levels to see the columns, caves, and canyons that have been eroded out.

The caves alone were a pretty amazing sight. However, they took us down by the water of the river and turned out the lights. Over head, you can see little blue lights like stars on the ceiling…glow worms. They shined a flash light in one area so you could see all the silks threads the worms have created. (Some of you may have seen these on the Planet Earth series on the Discovery Channel.)

We walked through the cave and down to the river’s edge where they have a boat and pulley system set-up to show the Glow Worm Grotto. It’s a large cave over the river with thousands of glow worms covering the ceiling of the cave. It is pitch black except for the blue, fluorescence of the glow worms. It’s like looking at a million stars in the sky.

We were not allowed to take photos in the caves…so I’ll have to scan some postcards to share. What an interesting day!

Now it is time for the long plane trip home…we get home about the same time we left, unfortunately we have to sit on a plane for 15+ hours of that time. We hope you enjoyed sharing our trip!