It's a Worm's Life at Waitomo
10th April, Waitomo, New Zealand
For a change, I find myself writing about a place that we visited and didn't take any photos. No, the camera was not broken, and neither was my arm/wrist/photo-taking-finger.
We visited Waitomo Caves today, getting there about midday after a very scenic drive (it's difficult to find a long-ish distance drive in NZ that isn't scenic in some way). Inside these caves we could not take any photos, or take any video footage at all. This was not a major issue, as Manda and I had seen excellent cave formations before at Jenolan Caves near the Blue Mountains (twice, in fact) and got all the cave snaps we'd ever need there. Besides, the caves here were not really all that interesting ... or rather the cave formations weren't interesting. What Waitomo does have, though, is some very interesting inhabitants - glow worms. Thousands of them.
The tour included the usual geology lesson about the rocky formations, how they came to be etc etc, but the main reason for joining the tour itself didn't take very long at all. We made our way down through to the river that flows through the cave and, in very low lighting, we climbed into boats that held 20 or so people at a time. Our guide then took us down a channel that got darker and darker and then as we rounded a corner we saw thousands of the glow worms on the ceiling, lit up like so many of those high-intensity leds that you see people sticking on their car dashboards these days. It was like sitting in a desert, hundreds of miles from civilisation, on the clearest of nights and looking up at an unspoilt view of the milky way. It was something like this:
Only it looked good.
Just a few minutes later, and our glow worm spotting was over. The boat rounded a corner and we could see daylight coming in from the cave entrance. Then everyone headed for the gift shop where they could buy postcards in place of the photos that they were not allowed to take.
Cook's Beach, Coromandel Peninsula
Ted and Barbara (T&B) had said that if we wanted to we could come along to Cook's Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula where they have a holiday home and where they would be spending the Easter break. We didn't know whether we'd find the time, but given the short time needed at Waitomo to see the glow worms, we decided to make our way over there. I phoned Barbara to say we'd be there and after another scenic 2-hour drive through the hills we arrived at Cook's Beach.
We were going to get some food and a bottle of wine for the barbecue that Barbara said was on for the evening but first I thought I'd pinpoint the house's location. I ambled through the streets looking for the house (I'd seen a picture and knew the address, so I had a head start), then, once I spotted it, turned around and was about to head for the shop. Then I spotted Ted walking down the front garden to guide us in. I couldn't slink off to the shops now! As it turns out, Barbara had been saying moments before to other friends in the house that "Ian and Manda will be joining us, they should be here soon" at which point Ted looked out the window and saw us go past. Perfect timing!
We came into the living room and found that we were not the only guests by a long shot - there was a houseful! Among them were Ted's sister (the two of them together something of a comedy double act) and other friends who also had places nearby. Elaine, in particular, was a real hoot. She told us a story ("this is a true story," she insisted to a room full of laughter) that has to be repeated. Discovering that we would be heading to Perth, she told us about a couple who had been travelling across the Nullarbor Plains, a journey which takes around 5 days, with a grandmother in tow. 2 days into the journey, the grandmother died, and so they had to improvise - after all, there were still 3 days of travel left. So, the grandmother was put into a sleeping bag which was then strapped to the roof of the van. At the next town, they pulled over to report the death at a police station and came back out to find that the van - and dead grandmother - had gone. The van had been stolen and was never found. Nor was the grandmother in the sleeping bag, sleeping the long sleep. Apparently it took the estate 7 years to pay out. Well, would you believe the story? You gotta wonder what the thief's reaction was when he checked out what he'd, erm, bagged. Sorry about that last line.
It was a fun evening with T&B's friends, the barbecue food was great and Ted's sister Annette kept on brilliantly teasing more and more stories out of Ted, many of which were as bizarre as the one recounted above. Ted seems to be something of a magnet for that kind of thing. If he ever sits still for more than 5 minutes it'd be great if he could write some of these stories down - I'd read the memoirs!
Clockwise: Manda, Barbara, John, Patsy, Paddy, Annette, Peter, Ted and Elaine,
taken at the Meyers' house in Cooks Beach, Coromandel Peninsula.
