The early bird gets the glowworms?

Our first full day in the RV, (hereafter affectionately called “Britzy,” started with a short back-track to Piroa Falls. Yesterday was an adventure on the narrow and curvy roads, today, Terri decided to throw in narrow, curvy and gravel roads as a bonus!?! We found the parking area to Piroa Falls thanks to google maps and another falls-seeking-tourist.

The hike to the falls was short and we had the falls all to ourselves.

Terri, in her “happy” place
Just to prove that I was there too!

Waipu caves was a long hike with no caves at the end. We arrived at the Waipu Caves parking area to find many cars but little directional help. We headed up the path that looked most obvious and after a fair distance met a few hikers coming back. They were a little disgusted in that there were no caves at the end, only a wide vista of the surrounding farmland from the top of the hill. Although the hike was pretty it was not what they anticipated. We agreed that the caves must lay on another trail. We decided to trek on and enjoy the scenery.

Back near the trailheads, we found the very short hike to the actual caves and the illusive glowworms.

Unlike in the US, no signs indicating “danger” or “use caution”
Dressed for success!
Yep, that’s what we risked our lives for! Not really! As it turns out, you don’t have to be early to get the glowworms, you just have to like total darkness. Turning off our headlamps revealed thousands of blue-green glowing dots on the ceiling of the cave. It was really cool. Sorry, the picture doesn’t capture the moment.
Fun stuff. There were 3 or 4 different tunnels to take. We took one that I was confidant that I could find our way back out.

Back in the daylight, we headed to the Bay of Islands.

The Bay of Islands, Paihia Town

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