NZ Day 4 – Kiwis: Feathered and Fruit

We were on the first Waitomo Caves boat tour as we had to travel to the East coast for tomorrow’s White Island tour. It was quite tame compared to yesterday’s tour but still worth doing and a lot more glowworms. Fact: Glowworms are actually fly lava with glowing poo in their arses. They have spider like threads catching other flies. The caves were spooky and the cluster of glowworms very pretty like night stars. We posed for the end tour photo pretending to be hooded muppets but the camera missed us.

We headed for Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty stopping off at a few places en route. First stop was the Otorohanga Kiwi House, a native bird park to view real Kiwis. Taking photos of MC Hammer trousered dudes were quite tricky being nocturnal and housed in a dark room. Outside were other NZ birds just as cute. Keas are parrot-like and just as clever plus we timed our visit for their feeding hour.

Left the aviary for more animal filled scenery passing cows, sheep, goats, deer and emus. Unfortunately, what we thought would be a scenic coastal road along the Bay of Plenty turned out to be without plenty of views until we got past the Kiwi 360, a fruity tourist trap. This was only a short stop for souvenir and cheesy photo opportunities. Our last stop before arriving at Whakatane was to view the long dramatic beach side views of Whale Island. The campsite felt a little pikey with some permanent residents. We stocked up on some more food at local New World which is slightly better than Woolworths. Slightly disturbed by the fresh meat counter serving sliced lamb necks and chicken hearts.