Caves!

Some of the many things we explored in New Zealand were caves.  The island has quite a bit of limestone, and thus many interesting caverns.  There are a few well-known big ones that you can only go in as part of a guided tour, but we were generally in happy-go-lucky, exploring-on-our-own mode, and sought out more obscure places that we could poke around without being part of a group.

First up was Waipu Cave.  This is an undeveloped cave up in the northern part of the island near Whangarei.  We drove over hill and dale on a twisty-turny dirt road, parked behind a gate on some farmer's field, and walked across the field to this sign.

After 25 meters on a muddy slippery trail, we found the opening

and went in.

We each had a headlamp, and Chad and I both had pretty powerful flashlights too, so we could see well enough to clamber down the entrance, across the stream, and into the pitch black part of the cave our of sight of the entrance.  However, photography with the adventure camera and no tripod was challenging.  I messed around with camera settings, and we strategically aimed flashlights to do our best to give you an idea of what it was like.

After working our way into the third big chamber, we turned off all the lights.  Spooky dark!

The really cool thing about this part was that the top of the cave was covered with glowworms, and as our eyes adjusted we could make out an amazing display of the luminescent larvae above us.  It looked like a densely star-filled night sky, right there in the cave.  My camera was not up to the task, but Google "glow worm cave" to see what these things actually look like.  Apparently the glow worms are brighter when they are hungry.  These ones seemed hungry.  It was really quite an unusual sight.

It was raining, leading to some uncertainty about rising water levels, and we still had a long drive planned for the rest of the day, so we opted not to push through and explore further, though our book indicated that there was 150 meters more muddy fun to be had further in the interior maze.

Later in the trip, when we found ourselves in the area near the more famous Waitomo Caves, we took a hike in a neat little preserve to see the Ruakuri Tunnels.  This is also a limestone region, with both entrances to some bigger caves (which you can explore in guided groups) and a delightful maze of a trail that wound its way along the creek and through a couple of small cave tunnels.  Having already seen some pretty spectacular glowworms for free up north, we opted for the do-it-yourself free hike.

The trail wound along the creek, involving several bridges across the creek

and pathways tacked along the edge of the creek

past cave entrances full of rushing water

and interesting tunnels

Nimue found lots of drips.

I kept finding intriguing little side entrances to the cave system.  This one I deemed too slippery to take the small one up into.

but we thought this one looked plausible.

Indeed.  I climbed up to check it out, and then back down to spot Nimue and Chad while they clambered up, and then back up myself.

Ooooh, more passageways, well above the stream level.  How fun.

Also photographically challenging, given my little camera

We played with different camera and light settings; the two below are of exactly the same location.  The lower picture is a better depiction of what it felt like.

At one point, I shone the light upward and saw a bunch of giant bugs on the cave ceiling above us:

Cave weta.  These guys are several inches across.

Undeterred, we did some more exploring

At another point, I climbed up into an adjoining passage above where we were.  An actual rock climbing move was needed for that one, so it was fun!  By this point, I could balance myself on the wet limestone, aim the flashlight, and operate the camera all at once.

Happy peoples.  We conveniently did caves on both of the days it really rained a lot.

After escaping this cave system and exploring further down the road to find a waterfall, we headed back towards Otorohanga and ate at a restaurant called "The Thirsty Weta", which seemed appropriate.

Sheep

We did see lots of these where we were in New Zealand,

 but many more of these,

and some empty fields too.

I gather than the main sheep area is further south than where we were.

Mean Ma

Nim makes faces

and is generally silly.

Chad plays along.

Ma is just mean.  She can be a monster

or merely underfeed the kiddo so much that a carrot is enough to entice her up the trail.

Geothermal fun near Rotorua

One of the areas we stayed at in NZ was near Rotorua, a town built on an active geothermal area.  Quite an active geothermal area.  The town itself smells of sulfur and there is steam coming up out of the ground seemingly everywhere.  It's well-known as a tourist destination, with thermal spa facilities (some of which date back to the turn of the last century), Maori village experiences at which you can cook your food right in the hot springs (sort of like an uncontrolled sous-vide setup), and a range of adventure sport activities ranging from straightforward things like mountain biking to less common things like rolling down hills in a giant plastic ball (Zorb -- look it up).  It's probably very scary to be there in the height of the tourist season, as the population swells to some large multiple of normal, but it was pretty pleasant in the winter.

The very nice B&B we stayed at was on the non-crowded, non-stinky, side of the lake.  It was entertaining to look across the lake to see geysers and steam coming up off of the town.

Not being the type to take spa mud baths, and not feeling like spending huge amounts of money on tourist-y cultural shows, we went in search of interesting geothermal features.

We found the Kuirau park, the weirdest city park ever.  Our goofy guidebook mentioned that it was "as if Dante got to play urban designer for a day" making the park (more on the guidebook in another post later).  Quite right.

First, you locate the park by heading for the giant smelly steam cloud.

Then wander the paths past lovely trees punctuated by fenced-off boiling pits of doom.  It's clear that the activity moves around a bit over time, as some pools weren't steaming any more, and others had recently-built fence extensions to corral off the growing pools.

Laugh at boiling mud.  It's just funny, and hard to stop watching.

Then go play on the playground.  Kids better be good, or their parents might just drop them into the nearest pit.  Nimue was good.

Spin yourself silly, and then wander over to look at the next pit without dizzily falling in.

Explore the non-mud, non-scalding, geothermal aspects of the park -- there were several pools of relatively clear water that had little pavilions built around them.  I gently eased my feet in (it was hotter than any hot tub I've ever been in) and soaked for a few minutes while we waited out the day's rain squall.  Afterwards, my feet were all tingly and happy :)

And ready for more walking around the steaming lake.  There are actually a couple of strategically placed walls to keep the steam cloud from obscuring the visibility of drivers on the adjacent street.

At some point, we explored the local museum, built in the bath house of one of the original spa facilities over on the shore Lake Rotorua.  It was quite interesting to explore the plumbing system underneath, learn about all of the "treatments" offered back in the day (electro-mud bath, anyone?), and then go upstairs to see more Maori carvings and learn about the history of the 1886 Mt. Tarawera eruption.

It was very tempting to rent mountain bikes, as there is an appealing maze of singletrack cut through Whakarewarewa, a redwood forest just south of town.  And yes, I said redwood -- the trees were planted by lumber interests as an experiment back in 1901 but never cut as other trees proved more favorable.  But this wasn't supposed to be a bike trip, so we stored the idea away for later.

After poking around the city park, we headed half an hour south of town to visit Waimangu Valley, a steaming rift valley full of geothermal features that came into being after the 1886 eruption of Mt. Tarawera.  This is now a park that you have to pay to get in, but the excellent self-guided hike that wound its way down the steaming valley was worth the price.

Nimue was unusually cooperative and posed in front of the mural that depicted a view of what was the world's largest geyser while it was active from 1900-1904.  

As you descend into the valley, it is clear that something weird is going on down there.

Frying Pan lake, the world's largest hot spring.  The average water temperature in the lake pushes 140F and there is quite a bit of CO2 and other gases burbling up.

Inferno crater.  The water in this lake is also hot, and rises and falls in sync with water levels and temperatures in nearby Frying Pan Lake.  One can't help but wonder what the underground water connections look like.

It was cold enough that we needed our stripy hats, and yet in many places the rock on the side of the trail was warm (or even hot!) to the touch.

Lots of colorful heat-loving bacteria.

Cute little micro-geyser.

Mt. Tarawera, the volcano at the end of the valley that exploded in 1886.

By the end of all this exploration, Nim was tired (see last post).  We all found it most interesting, though I kept wondering about the wisdom of walking about an area that is clearly still so very active!

When Nimue gets tired

I ran across this set of pictures, which give you an idea of what Nimue is like when she is tired after a hike.

Sad tired kid

Sad face exaggerated when asked to smile.

 Aaaaaaa!

 Really tired.

 Hint of a smile after Ma said something patently ridiculous.

 Zonk.

Hopefully this doesn't happen while she is off at camp, because there is no nice Daddy shoulder to lean on!

Across the water

More New Zealand for you this morning:

It being wintertime, we did not do much in the way of water activities, but we did take a passenger ferry from Paihia (not too far from the Treaty Grounds I mentioned a couple of posts ago) across the bay to Russell.  Nimue likes boats; this one was named the "Happy Ferry"

 Given that we didn't head across the water until 4:30, the light was getting low, making everything extra scenic.

We hiked uphill from town to the top of Flagstaff Hill, where the first official New Zealand flagstaff was raised after the treaty was signed.  This was entertaining, as we had just heard all about how the Maori chief Hone Heke instigated getting this flagpole chopped down over and over in the years following the signing of the treaty, as he found things not to like about the treaty.  Our tour guide at the treaty grounds really made Hone Heke out as a kind of a Trickster figure, chopping down the flag every time the British left an opening.

Hiking up the hill had the added benefit of giving us nice views in the warm late afternoon sunlight on the way up,

a chance to discover a nice sundial with a mosaic of New Zealand up top (Did you know sundials are counter-clockwise in the southern hemisphere?),

 

sunset-like views on the way down, 

and a chance to skitter across the beach at the bottom.

 We waited for the ferry as it got dark, and headed back to the cottage for another yummy lamb dinner.

Useful yarn bombing

Now this is a yarn bomb that is actually useful -- the soft cover keeps one from scratching one's bike frame on the rack.

Seen in downtown Sunnyvale this morning.  All the racks up and down Murphy Street got this treatment.