WAITOMO, NZ

GLOW WORM CAVE

Today we drove more than 350 Km on our sightseeing excursion to take a peek at the HOBBITON MOVIE location near Matamata, NZ, where some of "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" was filmed. It was a long drive to get there! We were also too cheap to pay the $75 entrance fee into the tour area for a 30 minute tour of the movie set. Instead, we just looked around the Shire and had a picnic in the front yard. I was disappointed that we didn't see a single walking tree! We should have because we were smack dab in the middle of their hobbi-tat! What we DID see was, what appeared to be, a dead Possum on the road. It just proves New Zealand Possums are no smarter than OUR Possums!

From there we drove out to the Glow Worm Cave near Waitomo and took a tour of the giant underground cave.
(Note to self: ALL CAVES are underground).
My Codger rate was $25 while my young bride cost me $43. The cave floor has been lined with pavers and stairs. It wasn't too well lit but we managed to find our way. The Glow Worm portion of the cave was seen from a boat as we rode along. The cave ceiling was covered with the tiny glowing creatures. I wasn't able to see them very well but I think the others enjoyed them. Kind of looked like stars in the night sky. They would not allow photography of ANY kind so we bought a post card. I took a picture of a picture and will just pretend its mine. Is that Plagiarism? (Maybe for you, but for Codgers, it's called "fun"!).

We made our way back to Rotorua and stopped by the downtown Farmers Market to get a bite to eat. It was nothing to sneeze at and we soon returned to our condo just after sunset. I ate what appeared to be bits of chicken on skewers and chicken fried rice. if it wasn't, please don't tell me any different! The smell of Sulphur was especially strong around Rotorua this evening. The myriad of boiling mud bogs and sulphur ponds are plentiful around here! I think we're so far "down under" that Hell must be very close! We need to watch our "P's and Q's" very closely!