I recently receved a comment from a dad who is traveling with his daughter to Zealand next year and said:

We are spending 39 days in New Zealand and have hired a campervan to get us around. We have been working on the plans since this spring and can’t wait to go.

Any suggestions for him?

My family traveled to New Zealand last August and, even though it was close to that country’s winter, we were amazed at the lushness of the landscape.

I was also suprised how integrated the Maori culture still was there and how so many of the towns and cites are named from the Maori language.

We originally arrived in Auckland from LA, and, although the city was interesting, we really didn’t find it that much different from other relatively major seaside cities that we had been to.

We were only spending a little while in New Zealand, so after a day or so we were happy to move on. Our goal was to take in the sites as we headed to Rotorua, considered the heart of the Maori culture.

We drove our rented car on the left side of the road toward the glowworm caves  in Waitomo.  “Waitomo” is a Maori word made up of two parts. “Wai”translates to “water”  and “tomo” means entrance. Hearing  about stalactites and stalagmites, I thought this was going to be a repeat of Howes Cavern in our area.

What an amazing suprise.

We didn’t have to travel that far down to get to the limestone caves, so the temperature there was relatively warm. Our tour guide told us much about this well known attraction including its special accoustical properties and how it was very unusual that another guide had recently gotten married there. Evidently, he only received permission because, as part of a certain Maori family, he was considered part owner of that area.

Then came the boat ride we had been waiting for. As the guide slowly took us through the water, we looked up to see what seemed to be  hundreds and hundreds of little dots of light. These were the glowworms! We were told that the glowworms found in these caves are a unique species only found in New Zealand.

We were not permitted to take pictures inside so go to http://www.waitomocaves.co.nz to find out more about these caves.