North Island Adventure Part 2

With only a month left in New Zealand and Hillery's report submitted, we decided it was time to go and have a look at the northern part of the north island: Ninety Mile Beach, Bay of Islands, Auckland.

But before the rubber hit the road, we of course went to PAK’n SAVE.



Day one of our north of the North Island tour. After Sawyer’s hockey game we drove to Bulls, where we met up with Aunt Julia and had lunch at the Mothered Goose café.





Bulls sits on flat land. If it weren’t for the occasional palm or lemon tree, you’d swear you somewhere in the U.S. Midwest. After a delicious meal followed by “the best custard squares in New Zealand” we headed on to Woodlyn Park near the Waitomo caves.

“Sleep like a hobbit! Sleep in a plane! Sleep in a train! Sleep in the Waitanic!” barks Billy Black, founder of Woodlyn Park. And he delivers. But how do you choose? We slept in a plane on our way to New Zealand—sort of. So we thought we’d give the train a shot.





Here's the Waitanic, a Fairmile WWII Patrol Boat:



Here's the plane motel, a 1950's Bristol cargo plane:



Waitomo is in farm country in the central part of the North Island. Below this pastoral landscape is an elaborate network of glow worm caves. Glow worms, you’ll remember from our South Island posts, are fungus fly larva. They spin weblike structures on damp canyon walls and cave ceilings, which is impressive but not a major draw for tourists.

So, these crazy Kiwis taught the larva to glow in the dark and look like stars. Shazam! Folks by the busload magically appear with fistfuls of cash just to climb down into caves to see what they can see any clear night. Nevermind the caves sit on the geologically volatile and unstable Ring of Fire.



The glow worms really made an impression on Ivy. The Glow Worm Cave tour concludes with a boat ride out of the cave. The water’s surface reflects the glow worms. Stars all around!



Here is Hillery at the Waitomo Caves Discovery Center checking out the cave simulator.



So, in Waitomo we slept in a train and saw fungus fly larva in a cave. Try doing that at Disneyland!



Black water rafting is also available in the Waitomo Caves, if donning a wetsuit and coal miner’s helmet and floating on an inner tube for three to five hours through a cave in complete darkness is your sort of thing. Well, it’s not completely dark. Don’t forget about the glow worms.

We decided the Kiwi Culture Show at Woodlyn Park was more our speed.

Bucky Black, Billy Black’s associate, put on a dusty, burlap-curtain performance for us, some Japanese tourists, and a small crowd of university students. Part New Zealand history lesson; part animal act, the Kiwi Culture Show leverages its close proximity to Waitomo Caves for all its worth. You couldn’t contrive a more bizarre business model: Let’s offer glow worm tourists plane, train, ship, or hobbit house accommodation and moonwalking pigs.

You really have to see it to believe it.



On our way to find a pot of gold: