Waitomo caves, kiwis in Otorohanga and Hamilton gardens

One of our last adventures in New Zealand was set close to the town of Te Kuiti, in Waitomo caves. I have booked 5 hour excursion into one of the caves within the enormous cave system at Waitomo. The caves here are known for their glowworms which, well they glow in the dark :). The tour started with outfitting us into thick wetsuits with raggedy clothes over them, high rubber boots with holes in them, helmet with a light on top and of course with a rapelling harness, so we could get down the rope at the entrance into the cave and then back up at the end of our excursion. The cave itself was very long and a small river was running through it. First we walked up one end for few minutes and then turned our lights off and walked in dark in a single file back. The roof of the cave was filled with green fluorescent worms which gave it a night sky like appearence with millions of stars shining bright. After the worm spectacle we set on big inflatable tubes and were supposed to let the current drive us down the river, however, it was more paddling than drifting. After a few minutes, we got off, had a small snack and then crawled through a few holes and crevasses in the cave and that was it. I'd say that from the 5 hours, we have probably spent maybe 2 or so actually doing something productive, the rest was spent waiting, driving or dressing :). If it wouldn't be for the worms, I'd say that this attraction is definitely not worth it, unless you have never been in a cave before. Then at the end they had the nerve to ask us to purchase some pictures of ourselves that the guide took during our trip. So, I guess you can tell what my decision was on that one since there are no pics here :). Well, business is business in these days.

The next attraction we embarked upon in this area was the Kiwi House in Otorohanga, which is basically a New Zealand bird Zoo. Since we weren't lucky enough to spot the kiwi bird in New Zealand (not even on the Steward Island), we had to go and look at one, eventhough it was in the zoo. They have about 20 kiwis here, but only 4 are kept on display. Due to the fack that kiwi sleeps about 20 hours a day, they have 2 of them showing in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. They really are as cute as a button, quite intriguing and very funny and clumsy when they run. We definitely enjoyed the visit here and there is of course much more to this place than just kiwis :).

Our last stop before returning back to Auckland was in Hamilton where we visited renowned Hamilton gardens. One of the most interesting exhibits was a set of gardens from different parts of the world such as Italy, China, Japan, India, America etc. Everything was beautifully sculpted into the different garden styles. It was a good place to reminisce about some of the places we have seen during our journey. After 2 hours of garden walks, we headed straight for Auckland to finish of our trip in New Zealand.