Journey to Rotorua

After my adventures on the South Island, I flew into Auckland, the largest and most metropolitan city on the North Island. From here I took a day trip via tour bus to Rotorua. Of course, as per NZ bus trip standards, the bus trip was quite an adventure in itself.

First stop on the way to Rotorua was the Glow worm caves in Waitomo. I’ve never been in such a big cave before. Actually I don’t think I’ve EVER been in a cave. It seemed kinda fake (it wasn’t) and more like a ride at Disney world. Anyway, glow worms are actually larvae, which glow on cave ceilings to attract other bugs who think they’re flying towards the heavens. They then trap these bugs in their webs so they can suck out all their yummy bug juices. They’re also cannibals and eat even their own brothers and sisters once they hatch. (Unbeknownst to me at the time, once they hatch, these rare little creatures look remarkably like mosquitoes. I killed a couple in the bathroom right before the tour and prior to my glow worm education. Oops.) So we weren’t allowed to take any photos or even talk above a whisper once we were in the caves. Apparently these cannibalistic-mosquito-like-larvae are quite light and sound sensitive and we shouldn’t disturb them. And of course, they took advantage of this and tried to sell us a crappy photo. But they forgot about Start>Programs>Accessories>Paint. Suckers!

We were allowed to take photos once we were out of the cave. I got a few awful shots, reminiscent of the 2girls1cup phenomena. Gross.




Next stop on the journey was a real live sheep farm. I had so much fun on the farm – way more than I was expecting (but no, I will not play “farmville” with you on facebook). First, we went around and were constantly bombarded by animals apparently expecting us to feed them. Of course there were tons of sheep, but also ostriches, deer, pigs, and cows. (Side note – they actually farm deer in New Zealand for the venison. Bizarre. I saw quite a few deer farms just travelling, and also saw some stuffed baby deer in a Auckland souvenir shop window. Shudder. )








After petting lots of cute and stinky animals, we watched a muzzled, skinny, and probably very hungry little cattle dog chase some sheep around. Dog was so skinny it reminded me of our best childhood pal Wolfe (RIP lil buddy). But apparently that’s how collies are supposed to look when they’re actually working, and not overfed and pinned up in suburban yards. Or so they said on the farm. I prefer a chunkier collie myself.



Next up on the farm tour was a sheep shearing exhibit. I’ve seen this done on tv, but seeing it in real life, was…uuhhh shocking. and a bit scary. Kinda gave me the heebie jeebies…like when you see a woman give birth on PBS or something. Minus the miracle of life. Yuck.





Finally, at the end of our journey we arrived in Rotorua. Rotorua is a town situated on a live geothermic site, resulting in lots of geysers and lots of sulphur stinkiness. The word Rotorua, I believe, comes from the ancient Maori term roughly translating to “Fart City", and reminded me of a traditional Colby family reunion. (I kid, I kid.) All the geysers we saw were located on a Maori Arts and Crafts Institute where we were treated with AMAZING traditional song and dance. And of course, a gift shop.