We’re in Waitomo to see the Glowworm caves. You cannot spend more than 5 seconds in this village without reading or hearing or about the caves. It’s unsurprising once you’ve learned that it is the only attraction, and the village of Waitomo has a total of 50 residents. The three or four hundred more people you see are all tourists. It makes a lot more sense that a village of 50 could have a highly rated restaurant, one cafe, one bar, and two hotels. All of these services grew over time, of course, as the caves have been in operation for 100 years (they started doing tours by candlelight).
We are now at our second stay in small-town New Zealand, and we can say:
- We eat well in the city. In small cafes in a microscopic village, not so much. We are far from the hand made bagel or rich coffee of Auckland.
- It is good hospitality for guest lodge owners to give a tour of your room and introduce you to every feature, functionality, piece of furniture and towel in your room. Really. We’re surprised not to have our nightstands as Facebook friends already. (This was true in Auckland too however)
This morning started with a big decision: we won't do like Frodo and go to Mordor. The Tongariro Crossing is a mythical and beautiful hike featured in The Lord of the Rings, and we planned to do it the day after tomorrow. For the past few days, the weather forecast for the park called for rain and wind. The amount of rain kept increasing, and the force of the winds forecasted keeps going up too. As of this morning, the forecast called for 80mm of rain with 25 to 35 km/h winds. As we've seen in LOTR, Frodo had a terrible time of it with far better weather conditions, so we decided not to try our luck in a storm. We scanned the map for somewhere with decent weather and found Napier. It's a small town on the east coast of the North Island. We discovered that, in addition to sunshine, Napier offers beaches and is an excellent wine region in New Zealand. How could we resist? We cancelled our reservations in Tongariro and will be making our way there tomorrow.
After our big decision, we headed to the main attraction: the caves. The first thing we learned is that the price of entry to the caves is not so much the money as one’s willingness to tolerate one's fellow humans. It would seem that bringing a screaming child to a tour whose top rule is quietness really tests one’s patience. Caves are also low-light environments. It’s a great test of skills and knowledge for photographers. It also shows the limits of smartphones' cameras. We saw a lot of “me in front” pictures and selfies in the cave. It makes one wonder how many blurry selfies will end up as profile pictures. Still, the worms are impressive and make for an impressive night sky in the cave. It’s worth walking through the crying infants, selfies, aggressive cameramen and other menaces to appreciate them.
Waitomo Glowworm Caves · 39 Waitomo Village Road, Waitomo Caves 3977, New Zealand
★★★★★ · Tourist attraction
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