Rotorua and Waitomo Glow Worm Caves

This is from the air into Rotorua, New Zealand.  Rotorua was volcanic as you can see by the brown mountains.  They said it would smell like sulfur but after a few minutes, you would get used to it.  Well, Liz and I never did, some places the smell would be stronger then others so it was difficult to enjoy eating. 

                    
                                      
We did go to the Mud baths.  It was very cold that day so we enjoyed the hot mud.  It was very comforting but we smelled like sulfur for three days.  Every now and again, you'd get a whiff of yourself and wonder why you did it in the first place.  Pictures below show Liz and I in our own private mud bath.

                                                                  

                                                                           

                                                                    

              This is the volcanic mud, smells like sulfur, in fact the entire town smelled the same way.  It was very relaxing but both our suits and our bodies stunk for a few days after...    They made us take a very cold shower after and before we were allowed in the mineral pool.  Freezing cold water but the mineral spa a few moments later more than made up for it.

      

                                                This was about the only thing we enjoyed in Rotorua.   We had to walk everywhere.  Our hotel was far outside the central area.  We had scheduled a tour but decided not to go after leaving the mud baths.   We spent the next few days walking from our hotel room to town center for meals.  The owner of the hotel was not very helpful so we used the brochure from Rotorua to decide where to eat and where to go.  We also did not have hotel pickup, as we had been told,so we had to walk into town to catch the bus for the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves on our way to Auckland to catch the plane for Fiji the next day.  The picture below is the Bus Station. 

                  This is the main entrance into the Waitomo Glow Worm caves.  Wait (means water) and omo (means caves) ..... 

                                                              

They would not let us take pictures inside the caves but this is the entrance.  There were tons of glow worms and they gave us their history on how the survive.  Amazing and beautiful.  In the caves, we were taken on a boat ride to see all the different stages of life.

                                                                                                 

                                                                      

                                       

                                Liz on the exit of the caves.  This is the boat we rode inside the caves.  Before we knew it we were on our way to Auckland, our last stop in New Zealand.  This bus tour did not stop at the small towns like the other tours did so we were a little disappointed when he only stopped when there was a public bathroom.  The trip took most of the day so we took some pictures along the way. 

If you look between the tall hedges, you can see vines that look very much like grapes growing.  But this is how they harvest kiwi fruit.  The tall hedges are put around all the kiwi to protect it from the weather.  This used to be a very properous way of life for those living in New Zealand but so many people were doing the same thing, it became very difficult to make a living from growing kiwi.  Several still do, thank heavens, so we can enjoy kiwi today.  Of course it's grown other places but when it comes from New Zealand, this is how it's grown and harvested!

  Our bus ride to Auckland was good except that when we arrived in Auckland, we were told the bus would take us to our hotel.  The information given to us was incorrect so we had to wait for a shuttle that would not arrive until around 4:30 that afternoon.  So, we had a few hours to walk around Auckland, have a drink in a local pub.  Auckland is huge so we could have spent a few days there.  We stayed the night at the Holiday Inn close to the airport for our flight to Fiji the next day.