Lake Taupo, Waitomo Glowworm Caves, and Wellington

Our time in Rotorua wrapped up with a morning walk around Kuirau Park - a public park with thermal pools and bubbling mud. It would be like having a public park in Yellowstone, lots of caution signs about staying on the path and warnings about the 100 degree Celsius thermal pools! The kids found a playground to run around, while Jay and I explored more of the park on our own. I love that Maggie isn't too old to play with Finn at the playgrounds that we've found. So far, they've been getting along great minus the occasional sibling tiffs. It's a good thing Finn is so easy going and lets Maggie take the lead and tell him what to do (AKA boss him around). 

 

Thermal pools at Kuriau park 

                                                                                                                   

Next was a two hour drive to Waitomo where we had a tour booked for the Waitomo Cave and Glowworms.  We've been to a couple of caves near Tucson, and the kids had fun comparing this cave experience to those. The cave is a living cave, meaning it's actively dripping and building stalactites and stalagmites. Part way through the tour, you enter a big room called the cathedral room with amazing acoustics. The local school children put on a Christmas concert with carols in this spot every winter, and then they have a procession back out of the cave with candle light. Our Maori guide sang a beautiful Maori song and had us all echo her; it was wonderful. Then came the glowworms! The glowworms attach themselves to the rock ceiling in the cave while they are in the larva stage. They grow in this phase for about 11 months, and the older they are the brighter they glow. The worms glow to attract their food, and they make saliva strings that hang down to catch their prey (flies and insects). Once it has trapped the prey, they pull it up and eat it. It was AMAZING when the guide put a flashlight on the glowworms so we could see ALL of their strings hanging down. We got in a boat at the end and floated in total darkness underneath a "starry" glowworm sky of thousands of blue and green twinkling glowworms. 

A quick treat at the cafe and we were off to Lake Taupo pronounced Toe-paw.  Another two hours in the car, and we spent it listening to some David Ferrier Flightless Bird. A podcast where David, a New Zealander living in America, investigates things in the US and compares them to NZ. We listened to his episode about pizza and Amazon (spoiler, there is no Amazon prime in NZ). Maggie was into it, but Finn not as much. 

Arriving in Lake Taupo - we had a great place, right across the street from the lake. Lake Taupo is HUGE - 238 sq. miles! There was a break in the rain, so we walked along the lake to our dinner spot. It was about a 45 min. walk to the downtown area from our Airbnb. We found a nice Italian restaurant for dinner; Finn found a gnocchi dish (his all time fav). There was A LOT of rain that night and Thursday morning was super rainy. Luckily we had a wood burning stove to keep us cozy in the house! We spent Thursday morning getting some online school work done while we waited out the rain. On to a wonderful cafe, The Storehouse, for lunch then a drive south to Tongariro to rent mountain bikes and ride on the 12km Tongariro River Trail.  The day ended with a soak in our thermal plunge back at the Airbnb. 

Tongariro River Trail Ride 

Through the forest... 

Along the river...

 

Above the river...

Past some farms - Maggie and Jay took the lead all day! 

Lake Taupo - walking to dinner

Sunset at Lake Taupo

Kids' bedroom in Taupo - loving the astronaut art 

View from our airbnb of the lake 

geothermal plunge pool at airbnb - prefilling 

You actually fill this with naturally hot geothermal water 

Ready to plunge beneath the stars

Friday - next stop Wellington! The first surprise was waking up Friday morning to CLEAR and SUNNY skies for the first time in several days. The clear view revealed snow capped mountains on the other side of the lake we didn't even know were there! Approaching Wellington felt like driving around the hills in LA. As we got into the city, it looked like San Francisco's doppelganger. A quick unloading of suitcases into our rental apartment and dropping off the rental car, then we were off to explore the city! We took the Wellington Cable Car up to the top of the hill, where we could see panoramic views of the city and ocean beyond and below. There's a gorgeous botanic garden that runs from the top of the cable car back down to the city. The kids found a park to play at and get some energy out while Jay and I enjoyed sitting in the last few minutes of sunlight on a park bench. We trekked back down to the waterfront following the "City to Sea Trail" and found a dinner spot, The Crab Shack, on the water. It was easy to walk back to our apartment via Lambton Quay and using the cut-through at the James Cook hotel lobby. 

Morning view of mountains from our place on Lake Taupo

Welcome to Wellington!

Cable car ride...up, up, up

Looking back at the city from the top of the cable car 

Wellington waterfront and city from top of Cable car 

Maggie admiring the big city and bay from our rental 

Is that the ocean - right there? Yes, it is! 

Exploring the city...

Relaxing in the Botanic Garden while kids ran around

City to Sea Walk back down to water front - through forests, neighborhoods, and city!