Waitomo Caves
Accommodation: Sun 9th Feb – Mon 10th Feb
Sun 9th Feb
Our two hour drive down from Rotorua to Waitomo Caves was rather uneventful apart from the fact we were notified by our recent host that Mark had left behind his cycling gear, rather expensive cycling gear at that, in the washing machine. Luckily for us, my sister was visiting Rotorua tomorrow and so she would be able to collect this for us.
Our accommodation at Waitomo Village Chalets was basic but clean and very comfortable and totally fine for our one night visiting the area. Having said that, Susan Scarf would not have stayed here. There weren’t a whole lot of options for me when I was booking though given I was only staying one night. So for us the Waitomo Village Chalets was it. We had appointments to visit Ruakuri cave at 2.30 pm and the Glowworm cave at 5 pm and that was the main reason for the stop here.
The two cave experiences were most enjoyable. Our first cave, Ruakuri, had the most impressive features and this took about 90 minutes to weave our way through. The second cave, the glowworm cave, quite unsurprisingly, had more impressive glowworms. The two activities were enjoyable and quite interesting, but they were very expensive and Mark said he considers Jenolan Caves, back home, to be more impressive. So you can make your own evaluation about whether it’s worth a detour to this part of the world to see the caves.
It was around 5 pm by the time we got back to our chalet but we didn’t hang around there too long because someone wanted to have a beer. There was a bar, Tomo Bar & Eatery, just in front of our chalet complex so we headed there first for Mark to have a beer.
After that, we ventured a little bit further along the road to Hu Hu Cafe and Restaurant where we had booked in for dinner. It was after 6:30 pm by this stage and it was a made amazing just how much punch the sun still had. We have been completely taken aback by just how hot it has been here. It doesn’t appear to be when you look at your phone app but the sun here is just so intense. It has been very very hot.
Given that we were sorted in the middle of nowhere we weren’t too sure what to expect for dinner. The restaurant had come recommended by our accommodation folk and we were very pleasantly surprised. The staff were all females but they certainly punched above their weight and produced dishes of a very high-quality. This is a venue that I would highly recommend if you are ever overnighting in the area. It had been a long and full day for us so we headed back to the chalet after dinner and had an early night. Tomorrow we head to the coastal area of New Plymouth.
