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The Waitomo glow worm caves are reached by walking down to river level via vast limestone chambers and taking a boat into an initially pitch black chamber.

Our guide, Ivan, introduces us to the formations, warning us not to touch, not to speak loudly and not to photograph once inside. The initial chambers are not unlike the Jenolan Caves in Australia - just larger. 

Now here's an interesting fact - caves are the safest place to be in the event of an earthquake - Ivan explains that several years ago he took a group through the caves during a quake which hit 6 on the Richter scale, they were none the wiser until they surfaced to find emergency crews putting out fires.

Looking under an overhang, we see the glow worm 'webs' - these are sticky translucent strands which hang some 30cm below the worm and trap the insects that are irresistibly attracted to the blue glow produced by the worm itself. Each worm has 20-30 such strands which it reels in like a fishing line when it gets a 'bite'.

The (bright) blue glow is created by a chemical reaction in the worms tail and, when many of these creatures cluster together, the effect is quite beautiful - not unlike looking up at a night sky.

From here we continue to Rotarua and the Thermal Explorer Highway to meet some Maoris and partake of a sulphur bath..

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En route for Rotorua we stopped at Waitomo.   Not much of a town but renowned for some unique cave life.  We joined a group with a “wag” of a guide.

He told lots of tired old jokes and led us down into the caves which were awesome in their magnitude.  We entered one cave - the size of a cathedral, with stalactites and stalagmites forming weird shapes – a church organ and suchlike.  Hosing the floor ( inexplicably) of an enormous cave was a chappie in oilskins, who appeared to have a grudge against tourists and guides because while the guide was doing his talk the “chappie” was trying to splash us and trip us up with his hoses.   Jason and I found this highly amusing,  but most of the others were oblivious except when they tripped up. 

Guide-bloke led us to a boat, we climbed aboard and he poled us deep into the interior of another series of caves, then the lights went out.  We had been asked to keep very quiet and to look above us.  The ceiling was covered in points of light.  The quiet was required since they would all wink out if there was any noise.  It was a lovely sight and so unexpected and very weird to float around, hear the lapping of water against a boat and gaze up at these lights.  The guide called them glow worms but having looked at what was called glow worm threads in another exhibit,  I suspected they were probably glow spiders. 

That completed, we set off again through absolutely stunning countryside.  If anyone has seen the swooping coombes of Exmoor, with sheep and cattle seeming to cling to the sides, they could try to exaggerate the heights and depths many times over and throw in mountainsides covered in tree ferns, pampas grass and weirdly; foxgloves. 

Throw in steam and cloud from nearby volcanoes and/or geysers, endless hairpin bends both up and down mountains, heartstopping drops by the side of the car and just maybe you might get a whiff of the scenery of North Island.  

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