From Auckland, we travelled to Matamata close to Hobbiton Studios. We enjoyed our tour of these studios, with Sophie giving us an excellent refresher course on the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit. We all agreed the Hobbit holes were very cute. The gardens were lovely with beautiful fresh flowers and birds. The kids really enjoyed going inside The Hobbit holes, which just opened last year and are surprisingly large. Sophie and Aiden both agreed they would be happy to live in a Hobbit house. Visiting the studio brought back many memories for Alastair and how much he enjoyed reading the books and seeing the movies. Over the next week we have committed to rewatching the Hobbit tribology.
The next morning, we travelled to Waitomo for a tour of the local Glow Worm Caves. This region is known to have over 300 different caves and the scenery on our drive was quite amazing. We stopped in the town of Otorohanga to see the sir Edmund Hilary alleyway featuring different tributes to Kiwiana culture. We enjoyed our visit to caves, no pictures allowed (I screened shotted a few from their promotional information as we did not buy our pictures). We noticed the difference between safety measures for entering caves in New Zealand versus the caves we had recently visited in Vietnam. The mud floor has been covered with paving stones and there are safety rails everywhere, parts of the caves are inaccessible as the monitors say the air circulation is not adequate. We were shown the monitors that ensure the caves remain safe and our tour guide wore a personal flotation device on the boat. Our guide, Tummie, was a local Maori, he told us a little bit about the culture significance of the caves and stories from growing up in the area. Throughout the cave were quite amazing with many delicate stalactites (hanging from above) and stalagmites (coming from below). We learned about the lifecycle of the glow worms the species is somewhat related to spiders and their saliva forms sticky strings that hang down like a spider’s web. The light glowing from their rear ends attracts other bugs, once caught the saliva contains a neurotoxin that immobilizes the prey.
Following our journey through the caves, we took an amazing road to visit the natural bridge and the Macura waterfall. We were all grateful for Alastair’s driving skills as we wound through an amazing road, it brought back memories of the road to Hannah. The forest walk into both sites was gorgeous, a tropical jungle that felt prehistoric.
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