Waitomo

A very exciting day today as it was time to leave the big city for the 'real' kiwi experience.Packed away our belongings- amazing how much we'd made ourselves a home in our little suite… and trooped off to the airport to the campervan depot. After a very efficient induction session we were shown to our new home. We had steeled ourselves for a tiny tin box so at least when we saw it we weren’t too shocked…A few little cubby holes inside swallowed up our clothes, books and other baggage and we set off south headed for Waitomo. Our first views of rural NZ were everything we'd hoped for. We were travelling through the Waikato region after the long river that runs through it. Think of the Malverns crossed with Tuscany but made much more interesting by the odd volcanic plug, sub tropical vegetation and weatherboard villas. Arrived at Waitomo which is renowned for its system of limestone caves formed by millenia of faulting, earthquakes, volcanic activity and underground water. There are several tours you can take- most involving some degree of participation in extreme sport- sadly (!) the lower age limit for these was 12 yrs so we had to content ourselves with a gentle walk through the glow worm caves, including a boat trip through the water filled ones. Sophie could not be persuadeed to sing in the 'Cathedral' ( the largest cave with stalagmites and tites-) but the Korean Tourists behind us did! The glow worms sparkled like constellations in the night sky, quite magical. Then the guide told us the glow is created when the glowworms poo! Oliver thought this was most amusing. Above ground again and we went for a beautiful walk over the bumpy hills and through some sub tropical forest. This landscape was straight out of Lord of the Rings- we expected the Orks to appear over the hills at any time...

We were then only five minutes from our campsite which was small and friendly and all the facilities including a pool which the kids jumped into whilst Richard cooked fajitas and I sat in the sun with a glass of vino...Our van in the middle of the pic...