Glow, Baby, Glow

I white-knuckled my way out of Auckland this morning,until the unfamiliar left-side driving again became familiar. Unlike the U.K., cars in New Zealand come equipped with a right-side-of-the-steering-wheel blinker. I eventually got used to it, but not before I turned my windshield wipers on the dry wind screen more times than I’d like to admit.

I drove through endless rolling hills, passing towns with names like Whatawhata, which sounds fabulous when said with a Kiwi accent, and Ngaruawahia, which twists your tongue more thoroughly than a stubborn knot in a necklace. I passed a hillside cemetery, dotted from base to hilltop with elaborate headstones and family plots, reachable only by a dizzying procession of steps. Unless I was more athletically inclined, I’d wish the dear departed well from the bottom, and call it a day. Just sayin’.

Like my trip to England, certain road signs continued to elude me, like the giant, standalone exclamation point. I have no idea what it was trying to tell me, but it was very emphatic.

My destination, the Legendary Blackwater Rafting Company in Waitomo, is home to the Glow Worm caves, which made their way on to my bucket list years ago, when my bucket list was still short. We started by wiggling our way into our wet suits and boots, then hit the training hill for some rappelling practice. You’re essentially on your own, abseiling down 110 feet to the cave bottom, where we saw our first glow worms. We turned our headlamps off, and hundreds of brilliant fairy lights lit the cave’s anteroom.

Making our way further in, we hooked up to a zip line. We zipped our way further into the darkened cave, lit only by the luminescence of the twinkling “worms”. The Māori name for these creatures is titiwai, meaning “reflections over water”. We learned more about what they really were later in the trip, but don’t google it if you plan to go. It’s best to just think of them as subterranean constellations. For around two and a half hours, we explored the caves by foot, inner tube, and short swims, dodging stalactites and glow worm “silk”. For one stretch, we linked tubes and slowly floated. I think this is a place that may visit me in my dreams … it was ethereal, with just a touch of magic.

After climbing out of the cave, it was time for a quick shower, followed by some hot tomato soup with toasted bagels. I left Waitomo and wound my way through more rolling hills, one-lane bridges, and pastures filled with cows and sheep, with dozens of the sheep clinging to the steep hillsides like mountain goats. I reached Lake Taupo just as night fell on the town, so I haven’t yet seen the view. My lakeside room shows great promise, though, with the lake just steps from my door.

Tomorrow’s another busy day, so as they say in Māori … te po pai (good night). Cheers!