We woke up quite early to make our way to Waitomo for our glowworm cave experience the next morning. We all had been waking up naturally before 6am, which means we are often up before any of the town (before coffee shops!). So, we got on the road for the 2 hr drive. It was a pretty view. We went through multiple Scenic Reserves (lush forests covered in ferns of all sizes) that we wanted to stop at, but we didn’t have time. All along the roads here there are tons of pastures with sheep and cows. On our first day Justin and I joked about playing ‘Hey Cow’ which my college friends taught me. It’s a complicated game where you yell out your window at a herd of cows and count how many look up (very mature stuff).. we might have played a bit as we were driving.

We made it in time to Glowing Adventures for our tour. Our guide, Ash, greeted us and got us decked out in our uniform for the hike. They provided all clothing – striped leggings and undershirts, canvas shorts, a fleece pullover, and wellies. We looked amazing! Our group was fairly small – just the three of us and 4 German travelers about our age. It was a good group!

We started by hiking a bit through a forest along a stream until we got to the cave. Every forest here is so beautiful. Despite the drought, everything is so so green with large ferns and moss covering everything. It rivals Scotland for sure.

Ash entertained us during the trek by educating us about NZ slang, including the phrase ‘sweet as’ (not to be confused with sweet ass). It’s a common response if someone asks you how you rday is and you want to say ‘good’. We now say it all the time..

As we started into the cave, Ash assured us there were no large critters.. but within 5 minutes there was a big Wolf Spider on a wall. Kathryn, one of the German girls, and I didn’t take that well.. fortunately he didn’t move and no more spiders came along.

The cave hike was really caving! We were crawling over and under large rocks the whole time. At times we had to squeeze really low or in between rocks. We had only our headlights to light the way through the pitch black. At one point we even turned off our lights and it was crazy dark and quiet.. gave me a bit of a chill! We also hiked through a creek that was deep enough that water got in the wellies and we walked the whole time with water suctioning in our boots. But, boy were we treated to amazing rock formations including stalagmites and stalactites, a large jellyfish-looking rock, and actively developing formations due to dripping water. It was so cool! Reminded me of an adventure from The Magic Schoolbus!

The hike culminated in an amazing experience with glowworms! They are actually maggots (but it doesn’t have the same ring) that perch on the cave ceiling, stretch silk down to catch food, and light up to attract it. They are so freakin neat! We got to a big opening in the cave, shut off our lights, and looked up. There were hundreds! It reminded me of my ceiling in middle school with the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling. Such a neat experience. We got a couple good shots too even with the darkness.

The tour wrapped up with coffee and biscuits on the office porch and then we were back on the road.

We found a waterfall hike along the road to our next hotel and were not disappointed! Not sure what it is about waterfalls, but I never get sick of them! This one had a great hike through more forest and a pretty amazing look out. We took lots of photos.

After the waterfall, we were quite hungry so were on a mission to find food. We were in the middle of nowhere though, so it took a while. We ended up in Taumarunui, a small town where it didn’t seem like anything was open.. but we found one cafe and were so happy we did! We ended up at Zar’Z Cafe where we were greeted by the sweetest local girl who referred to us as ‘my lovelies’ no fewer than 30 times. It was delightful! She recommended their burgers so that’s what we went with. Mine came out with a burger pattie, egg, sliced beet, bacon, mayo, tomato, lettuce, and cheese. It was huge and delicious and quite an experience!

Then we made our way to the Adventure Lodge, our home for the next 2 days. This is the one time all 3 of us stayed in one room. It was cramped, it worked! We lounged for a bit and then went right to bed as we had a big 8hr hike planned for the next day.