In transit for about 1 hour at Brisbane airport in Australia
Upon reaching Auckland, we picked up our pre-booked rental car, and drove off to Otorohanga.
Evening/night: After a brief stop at Otorohanga for groceries at Woolworth's and dinner of (McCain's) fish n chips, we found our pre-booked accomodation at Waitomo Caves (name of the town). Later, we were to discover that Woolworth's is like, the most expensive among the other supermarkets (New World, PaknSave, FoodMall).
See the travel guide book on the bed? I'd borrowed it from NLB, and after we left this town, I'd discovered it was missing from my luggage! It must have somehow slipped through the gap at the far edge of the bed and sat under the bed, but more about this later.
The lodge by day (must be day 3 liao!?!)
Next door is all farm land - we could see and hear the moo-ing calf running after his mommy!
Home recycling at the lodge - it's a common practice in NZ
We drove around to the scenic places; at Waitomo Caves domain
The Marokopa Falls, after a 10-min walk through very cool forest area
The Piripiri Caves were too dark and too wet for our miniscule torches to guide us in safely, so we had a picnic lunch at the scenic surrounding instead. :)
Pineapple lumps, a special confectionary of Kiwi origins. It sometimes come in the form of Chocolate Fish.
Quite nice to eat!
NZ is really a fern country. No wonder the NZ milk powder brand is called Fernleaf
Day 4: Checked-out and before leaving, we met Amy's dog Lily, who sometimes goes to work with her. Amy works at the lodge and was a big help in saving me from having to pay NLB for the lost library book.
Last look at the lodge at Waitomo Caves
Edit: I forgot to mention - in the evening, we went to one of the Waitomo Cave domain / park to look at glow worms along the river. Only visible in the dark, these tiny blue-hued worms would glow / twinkle brightly as they go about their usual wormy business.
7 comments:
The garbage trucks come once a week and one is for the recycled stuff.
There is no sweepers but perhaps a sweeping truck once a while, yet the streets are clean.
PM Goh once commented that NZ is one of the most gracious countries in the world. Put us to shame with our high density of dustbins and the convenience of home rubbish chutes, yet we litter like nobody's business!
It just show we are generally shameless and selfish.
It's true that NZ is much more gracious. There are much fewer dustbins around than in SG, yet the place is very clean and people are polite, including on the roads. Even if the drivers have the right of way, they will slow down at road junctions and crossings and give way to pedestrians.
The civility and friendliness of the folks there is something I really like.
i used to work for McCain! And was lucky to have been to NZ for training. Those were the good old days. Went to Auckland and Timaru (where french fries are produced).
How nice for you, ksn. I wasn't sure if the fish was made fresh or from McCain's but there was a small McCain's logo at the shop - maybe referring to the chips.
probably the chips. McCain doesnt make fish...
hope you guys tried the lamb chops and steak - absolutely fabulous! i am drooling as i am typing this...
Lovely! and the sunshine're great!
Spring?
Woody!Spencer's long lost bro !
Yep EJ, it was the earlier part of spring, so it was still rather cold at the beginning of the trip. The weather was not too bad even though there were light showers at times.
Is spring time like that too at where you are?
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