Waitomo

(No photos today as we forgot to take them!)

It was overcast when we woke this morning but warm. It is definitely warmer in New Plymouth than anywhere else. I think that Mt Taranki must protect the town from the southerly winds. The first place we went to was the iCentre to have a look at the museum. Unfortunately we only had enough change for one hour of parking so had to rush around which was a real pity as it was a very extensive museum, which also included the art work of a local artist, John McLean. After watching a video, in which John McLean explained about the series of pictures on display (The Farmer’s Wife) we went and viewed the pictures. They were excellent – very descriptive and full of emotion and concepts. We then had to rush around the museum which showed the Maori and Pakeha settlement of Taranaki and quite a bit of information about Mt Taranaki. It was all free and there was a very good restaurant there too but we did not have time for coffee so that had to come at the next settlement called Waitara.

We then drove the remainder of the way to Waitoma through the usual twisty roads with beautiful scenery to look at, as long as you were not driving of course. We stopped at a place called the Three Sisters for lunch. The Three Sisters, now reduced to two sisters because one collapsed, are outcrops of rock at the river mouth of Tongaporutu, which was very picturesque. Unfortunately the tide was in so we could not walk to see the Two Sisters. There were about five motor homes (local NZer’s) wild camping and they informed us that you were allowed to camp there!

White baiting is in full progress up here and it is very tempting to have some before we leave the North Island. For those of you are not NZer’s, white bait are very tiny, tiny white fish which you make into fritters. They are a real delicacy. They are caught in nets at the mouth of rivers and as it is white baiting season we have seen lots of people out with their nets.

So now we are in Waitomo and have had a look at the small museum at the iCentre, which gives a detailed account of glow worms, caves and historical events. It is a glorious evening and we are sitting in the van watching a beautiful sunset. We are booked into the Spellbound Glow worm caves tomorrow, which is an alternative to the normal Waitomo Glow Worm Caves complex. There will be some walking involved, and it stated that you only need to be reasonably fit. Hope we fit this category. We are looking forward to it.