A late start as we're belayed by my poor showing at getting my journal typed up and the shop opens at 9.30. A later start as it was slightly chilly and I preferred to press snooze than get up.
We must have made it to the Internet shop by 11 where I was able to a) plug my camera into the mains as its battery is dying and b) get all the pictures online. Helen went FedEx'ing and shopping while I dallied. She came back having spent NZ$200+ with more in the offing and I was still dallying. We both faffed trying to resize images using duff versions of Win98 and eventually gave up and went back through the journal adding in simple links to the big pictures. Eventually the bloke asked for his mains socket back. The Coke machine had been off all day...
By then it was getting on (about 4pm!). A trip to the optician for NZ$100 of contact lenses to be picked up in Christchurch. Now it was 5-ish and we hadn't booked any accomodation. A few calls later and we're booked in in the middle of nowhere down Waitomo way.
We head off, finding nothing to eat en route. We stop at the Waitomo Caves Information site to find that most things [activities] are both expensive and involve cold water underground -- oh, and no [taking] pictures. We spot a pizzaria in, as it turns out, the YHA. I went for the "gourmet" banana, bacon, maple syrup and camembert pizza. It's a bit sweet,
she said. No kidding! It was very reminiscent of Paul's pudding at Chitimba beach.
We carried on down the road, turned right at Te Anga (it really does just have a pub [and that's it]) and headed off into the hills. Naturally, we got lost and did a bit of toing and froing before a lucky guess found us The Lazy Hedgehog, a complete hideaway on a 1300 acre farm.
The Lazy Hedgehog, Te Anga S38.18895 E174.79672 Elev. 255m.
Nicky [the hostess] told us that at the "natural land bridge" you can see the [glow] worms for free. We headed back out, Helen somewhat nervous of being accosted by possums. The first possum we saw was sniffing its recently flattened friend's corpse.
As we arrived at the [site of] the land bridge another vehicle turned in. This is the place to go! A couple of minutes later and there are glow worms all over the overhanging rocks (it turns out the glow worms will appear anywhere that's damp, has food and overhangs!). It's a very impressive and eerie site and almost completely fails to appear on film -- too little light. As we left Helen started as a possum leapt up onto to handrail of the bridge we were on. Despite some squeals and flashing of torches it came forward (to more squeals). Amazingly, Helen grabbed her camera and took a shot (it should be very good). I turned my camcorder on but got the usual night time black viewfinder -- it turned out I had the lenscap on.
Our final possums for the day were not the roadkill (there's a lot) but a romantic liason between two as we stopped the car outside the lodge. The smaller dark male was carried off on the back of the larger lighter coloured female. An easy ride.
Copyright 2002 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.