NZ Part 6 : Waitomo and Rotorua

We were not visiting Waitomo originally. That's is why if you look at the route it is like kami berpatah balik dari Matamata/Hobbiton. Memang pun. But our Methven/Christchurch plans changed so we had an extra day to spend in the North Island. Luqman said we must visit the glow worms and so we did.

We spent the night at the Top 10 Holiday Park in Waitomo Village (after the lonely lake the previous night I said we must try staying at a paid camping site). This holiday park can be found in most towns in NZ. So our plan throughout the journey was, if we fail to find any other camping sites we will look for this one!

 It is a full facilities camping site which means they have shower, toilet, kitchen, laundry and dump stations plus fresh water for re-fills. In fact this place has even got a swimming pool, a bbq area, trampoline, picnic tables dan entah apa lagi. Orang pun ramai jadi saya yang penakut ni tak lah ketakutan! It was a good place to stay. If you feel like sleeping in a chalet instead of the camper you can do that also here.

 We were given a very nice parking spot on the grass with a picnic table under the trees.

Dan kami berlakon duduk di atas (most comfy) camping chairs that come with the camper (memang tak pandai berlakon..)

Morning and breakfast. Terkejut mat salleh tengok Kaia pergi bilik air dengan kain pelikat. Home made; oops - campervan made pancakes for breakfast. With maple syrup, butter and manukka honey (of course). Kopi O Hang Tuah (!) dan milo.

The glow worm cave is like 10 minutes away from our camp site.

You have to ride on a boat in the dark cave to look at the glow worms (kalau ada lampu macamana pulak nak glow kan..)

You cant take any photos in the cave. Light is said to damage the worms (so you have to trust me that it looks like this in the cave. I pasted this from the internet.. haha).

I cant say if I enjoyed the glow worms cave tour; but it is definitely something different. It was beautiful on the cave ceiling sebenarnye; almost like you are looking at the stars in the skies on a very dark night. I think my excitement was deflated when Kaia said, ma I think they planted tiny lampu on the cave ceiling.. hmfhp..

We went to Rororua next. It is the place to learn the Maori culture. Travelling to Rotorua is wonderful. On-the-road scenery terlalu cantik. Wide blue skies. Long straight roads with very few cars and beautiful farms and green hills on both sides (dan saya teringat lagu Rotorua from the 70s).

Namun Rotorua tak dapat menambat hati saya. Maybe we were in a big rush and didnt take time to explore the place (saya rasa memang ini sebabnya dan dah memang plan di Rotorua nak tengok geyser saja and nothing else).

And you definitely cant miss the sulphur smell in Rotorua. We visited Te Puai, one of the more popular geysers.

Our tour guide was Darren, a Maori. He was super nice and told much of the Maori culture. He also did the face that Maoris do when they finish the haka (with bulging eyes dan lidah terjelir). Budak2 ni gelak sampai nak tersembur..  Unfortunately the Maori culture show in the evenings agak2 terlalu mahal and they serve dinner. So we skip that. It would have been nice if we can watch it.  

We spent the night at a camp site by the Lake Rotorua (di NZ ni lepas satu, satu, terjumpa lake. And they are all beautiful).

Rotorua Lake at dusk.

Our campsite for the night. Old. But still nice all the same. The sunset was beautiful. So was the night sky. We saw more stars here than in other skies.





~ xoxo