We made it to New Zealand, with our first stop being the Bay of Islands, which encompasses 144 islands between Cape Brett and the Purerua Peninsula and includes the tiny tourist towns of Opua, Paihia, Russell, and Kerikeri. What a beautiful place for our first exposure to New Zealand.
We went on an excursion here to see the Puketi Kauri Forest and the Waiomio Glowworm Caves. Our first stop was to the town of Kerikeri to see New Zealand’s oldest building and its 1830s stone storehouse.
Next stop – the forest. To quote our excursion description, “Rivaling the California redwood in height and girth, thousands of mighty kauri trees once cloaked the Bay of Islands. The reserve you’ll tour is one of the last protected areas where they still stand, and the boardwalk through the forest allows visitors to admire these gargantuan wonders up-close without damaging their sensitive roots.” This is exactly what we did. We arrived at the forest and strolled amongst the trees. The kauri trees are quite impressive. They only grow north of 38°S in the northern regions of New Zealand’s North Island. They can grow upwards of 150 feet tall and live upwards of 2,000 years. In fact, they are second in size only to the giant sequoias of California. Our guide told us that for every meter across that the kauri tree is, you can estimate that it’s about 500 years old.
Here’s a baby kauri – maybe just a few years old. It’s almost hard to see with how skinny it is.
Some of the giant kauri we saw were likely just saplings when the first Māori set foot in the area, which is a wild thing to think about. Another cool fact – they grow with an even circumference at the top as they are at the bottom. Early Māori settlers used the trees, but not as much as some of the other native trees. Once the Europeans began arriving in the 1800s the trees began to be heavily cut down for many things, including for ships and building materials. In later years the gum of the trees was highly valued as a varnish and linoleum.
As we wandered along the path, the guide also told us about the conservation efforts underway to eliminate the rats, stouts (never heard of that animal before), and opossums as they are considered pests and have put many of the native birds in danger, including the tiny nocturnal kiwi bird. Their goal is to be pest-free by 2050. So far they’ve had some great success, increasing the kiwi chance’s survival exponentially in the area. Unfortunately, given our tour was during the day and they’re timid creatures, we didn’t see any kiwi other than a little stuffed animal she showed us.
We saw silver ferns all along the route. The silver fern has been a symbol of New Zealand’s national identity since the 1880s and is named for the silver underside of its fronds. To Māori, the elegant shape of the fronds stood for strength, stubborn resistance, and enduring power. You can see the silver color of the underside compared to the top in this photo. Supposedly people would use them to mark their way along a path.
At one point we saw a fern that was in a weave. The guide told us that a former visitor had done it and told her to tell all the international visitors that it was how the ferns grew naturally here. I thought that was funny. Here’s a photo of that weave. 🙂
After we finished at the forest, we had a quick side trip to Kawakawa, a town with train tracks running down the main street and whimsical public restrooms designed by an Austrian artist. I took a photo of the restroom but somehow the image disappeared, so no photo. Oh well.
Finally, we were off to the main attraction – the glowworms! We arrived at the Waiomio Glowworm Caves and were introduced to our guide, who told us the story of the caves. In short, a woman named Roku discovered the caves after she ran away from her husband. She was found living in the cave by a neighboring tribe after they discovered she had been pilfering some of their sweet potatoes. She wound up living with that tribe for a while before they sent her back to her husband (or else have war between the tribes).
Our guide informed us that no photos would be possible in the caves, so you won’t see any glowworm photos here. However, I have to emphasize that this was an incredibly cool experience. We saw many huge limestone stalactites and stalagmites, as with many caves.
When we had made our way a bit inside, we turned off all lanterns and above our heads were hundreds (thousands?) of glowworms, bright blue like stars in the sky. In fact, they refer to them as the Milky Way. We were all in awe. We then walked a little further in the cave (and saw where Roku slept and built her fire so many years ago) and stopped again. This time the glowworms were closer to our heads and we could see individual dots, even spaced apart on the ceiling of the cave. They were even brighter and more magnificent than before. As we stood there, they seemed to get brighter and brighter and we could even start to see each other from their glows. Simply incredible.
For the record, I feel like since I can’t share photos I should at least share some of the facts we learned. For example, glowworms are not actually worms, but the larvae of fungus gnats, an insect that looks like a mosquito. They are bioluminescent, with their light created through a reaction of an enzyme called luciferase and a variety of other chemicals. The bioluminescent glow is used to attract prey. Smaller insects and flies are drawn to the light and fly towards it. So, the brighter the light, the hungrier the glowworm.
While glowworms are rather small, about the size of a matchstick, they prey on even smaller insects such as mayflies, midges, mosquitos and flies. To capture their food, glowworms build a network of threads from their sticky spit/mucus that hang vertically from their habitat. As the insects are drawn to their glowing bioluminescent light, they fly toward it and into the sticky silk maze, where they get stuck for glowworms to eat – similar to how spiders capture their prey. So, basically, they are trapping their food using loogies that they slurp up when a bug gets stuck. Disgusting. But cool.
After our glowworm experience, we retreated out of the caves and headed back to the pier. We wandered around an outdoor market and through some souvenir shops (John got a tshirt, Ryan got a kiwi, and Matthew got a black hoodie). Tori and Matthew then got some ice cream (hokey pokey flavor… a New Zealand staple that consists of vanilla ice cream with lumps of toffee…) and then returned to the ship.
All in all, this was definitely a good day with an unforgettable experience. As we sailed away, we caught a glimpse of the famous Motukokako Island with its dramatic Hole-in-the-Rock arch. The 60-foot hole at sea level was created over centuries by wind and waves. If the waters are calm and the tide is right, people will take canoes and jet boats through the hole. Supposedly, if water drips on you as you go through the hole then you’re in for good luck. Needless to say, our cruise ship was a tad too big to go through it, but we considered ourselves lucky to see it relatively close up like we did.
