Waitomo, NZ

“A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.”

Gandalf

Hobbiton

No trip to New Zealand is complete without a visit to Hobbiton. Unfortunately everyone thinks this way, so bookings are usually recommended far in advance. I planned on doing a hike in Thames and staying there for a day longer, but when I checked for Hobbiton tickets, I saw that the couple weeks ahead of me were sold out. There was a single opening the next day at 8 AM, what must have been a cancellation. So I bought the ticket.

I woke up around 6 in the morning and took much too long to get ready. Leaving late, I drove as fast as I could for the hour and a half journey to Matamata, the town near the movie set. Thankfully I made it on time, avoiding speeding tickets.

Our tour to Hobbiton started with a bus to the Shire. We viewed some clips from Lord of the Rings on the bus and our tour guide told us the history of this location. Then we arrived and began our walk around Hobbiton itself.

It felt like a fairytale, with the little hobbit holes all around us; there were 44 of them total! Some hobbit holes were human size, while others were smaller to give the effect of the hobbits being a smaller size.

I was amazed at the detail of the place and it truly felt that you were part of that world. At the end of the walk, we got to enjoy a drink at the Green Dragon, the Hobbiton pub. I felt kind of silly drinking beer at 9 in the morning, but when in Hobbiton..

Waitomo

Blogging is no easy task. A challenge I’ve been facing is trying to convey the raw emotions I felt when experiencing something, days later when the excitement has faded. Some days of my travels are absolutely wonderful, and then I feel somewhat low afterwards, the too-much-of-a-good-thing kind of feeling. Waitomo was a wonderful period of my trip, and I wish this leg of the journey did not end.

The small town of Waitomo is known for its extensive underground caves, inhabited by thousands of glow-worms that light up in the dark. The caves also feature waterfalls and intricate limestone formations. After Hobbiton, I saw on the map that I was about an hour a way from Waitomo, so I booked a hostel for the night and drove there.

When I arrived to town, I went straight to the Legendary Black Water Rafting Company, as directed by my guidebook. I saw they had several cave adventures, one of which was three hours long and included walking through the cave in a wetsuit and floating in a tube. I booked this visit, which had a convenient opening within the next hour. 

We had pretty sophisticated thick wetsuits; they included long pants, a jacket, little booties, and then rubber boots over them. Each person had to wear a helmet which had a headlamp on it. I was in a group of 12 people, and we had two fun humorous tour guides. First, we rode a bus down to a small river near the cave, where we took turns jumping backwards into the water while holding the tubes to our bottoms. This was to practice how we would be jumping from the waterfalls inside the cave! Jumping backwards into water from a height is a little nerve racking, and you end up with lots of water up your nose. But it was a good way to get warmed up in the wetsuit before driving to the actual cave entrance.

We entered the Ruakuri Cave through a small hole and then slowly made our way through the running water inside. Soon enough, we reached the first waterfall where we had to do the backwards jump into the river. The rocks in the cave were slippery but the sturdy grip on our shoes made sure we did not slip. As you wander down the cave in thigh deep water, you can’t always see where you are stepping and are just hoping you don’t trip by a hole in the water. The second waterfall was a much bigger drop and that terrified me. After some support from my group, I jumped and it was exhilarating. Once everyone was past the second waterfall, we all assembled into a single line while seated on our tubes, holding each other’s feet, and floated down the river. 

We approached a dark part of the cave where we we were asked to turn our lights off and peer up. Above us was a ceiling lit up with glow-worms. It was unreal, it felt like I was looking at the stars in the night sky! I was truly amazed by this experience and it was the most breathtaking of my adventures so far. I floated down the river with my mouth open, gawking up above me the entire time. I was speechless. That feeling continued for the rest of the day.

Surrounding Waitomo

After the cave tour, back at the base, we were treated to a hot shower and soup with bagels; the perfect ending to a heart-thumping adventure. One of the guides was very friendly and we chatted for a while after the tour. He later showed me around Waitomo. We hiked to a pretty lookout point, where you could see the “haunted” Waitomo Caves hotel nearby. I enjoyed listening to his stories of the town and learning more about the Kiwi lifestyle. 

After dinner, we drove to the surrounding park of the cave we had visited earlier that day, to go on a stroll. Once the sun is completely gone, the vibrant glow-worms light up the park in all directions. At one point in time, we reached a bridge, and on either side of it were glow-worms in the forest, and above us was the Milky Way. I actually loved this place more than when I was inside the caves with the glow-worms. I was in awe; it was a magical evening.

I spent the next day exploring the nature reserves near Waitomo. My first stop was the Mangapohue Natural Bridge, a high limestone arch, resembling a bridge, over the Mangapohue River. It was enormous, yet eerie.

Afterwards, I visited the biggest waterfall I’ve seen so far in this country, Marokopa Falls. Despite admiring it from a distance, it was such a roaring fall that you could feel the mist of the water from the lookout point. Down below, people were cooling off in the stream.

I hiked around, and even made my way to the west coast to a town called Marokopa to watch the Tasman Sea beating against the beach. There were many fishermen in the low tide on the hunt.

Sonder

I spent the evening with my new friend from the hostel at the local pub in town, played some pool, and chatted with other travelers. Everyone has such unique stories of how they got to this place and point in their life and I can never get tired of hearing them. One of the men I spoke to was a pilot for the private jet of a billionaire family (the ones who invented the Bai drinks that I used to constantly drink back home). It is so fascinating to me, and makes me think of a beautiful word, sonder:

n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness.

I have a list of moments in my life when I have been engrossed in awe. The first is seeing a solar eclipse in totality. The second is seeing the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) in Iceland. And now, I would have to say glow-worms lightning up a forest at night is number three.

My time in Waitomo felt surreal, and I keep replaying the events of those days in my mind so I don’t have to forget. But memory seems to slip away so quickly and you are left with just the feelings of a place and the people you met there. Experiencing so much emotion at one time made me feel as if I was leaving a part of my heart behind in this town. Moving on is physically easy, but letting go is a challenge.

-Anastasia