We left Australia leaving on a midnight flight to Bali that dropped us into Denpasar around 1:30 am. We crawled into our beds and passed out, but not before I almost used the tap water to brush my teeth, only stopping when the girl yelled out upon hearing me turn on the tap! I wasn’t used to not just using the tap water, even though I was the one who gave multiple lectures to the kids about water rules in Bali! 
Bali is a popular tourist destination for much of Europe, Japan and Australia. Our first night we stayed in Kuta, conveniently near the airport, but is an area which is overrun with partying Australians. It’s crowded and assaulting – every two minutes someone is asking you if you want your hair braided, or to come in their shop, or to take a taxi, or something else. The boy found this to be very sad – he perceives it as people having to beg for their livelihood, which isn’t entirely inaccurate, and he found that degree of inequality unjust. We liked walking along the beach and the kids played and jumped in the unpredictable surf, sometimes getting unexpectedly drenched and having a great time. 

I had decided to stay in Ubud instead for a quieter and more relaxed experience and we took a car there in the afternoon. I  expected a small village with a few shops and quie

t 
streets, and I couldn’t have been more wrong. Ubud is smaller than Kuta but there are no fewer tourists millling about. Some of this is due to Ubud’s popularity after Elizabeth Gilbert found Love there after Eating and Praying her way through the world, but even without that there’s plenty of people here. Still, the overall feeling here is very different. While it’s a tourist center people here are genuinely very nice and the shops and restaurants are inviting, not overwhelming. I wish I’d gotten a good picture of the streetscene, but I was too focused on not getting run over by the hordes of motorbikes and cars on the narrow streets. Here’s one Eric took of us:



I booked a place a little ways out of city center in the village of Tengalagang, and we were all delighted. Inang Villa, where we stayed, was a tropical oasis nestled among rice paddies and was a fantastic place to retire to after hot sweaty days of walking. Given that its surrounded by farms there is the constant daytime music of roosters crowing, ducks quacking, and the loud hum of the cicadas. At night you hear the croaking of frogs and the gentle crickets. Add to this the sound of flowing water from the stone fountains which empty into the pool, and you feel like you’re in another world here. 

The following day we made a plan to start at the Ubud palace, walk down the aptly named Monkey Forest Road, check out the shops, visit the monkeys and then head to our spa treatments. Yes, that’s right. Here in Bali you can get nice treatments for next to nothing, so why not, especially after all our road time? On our way out, Kadek, our villa owner said that we should go check out the cremation that was happening. I asked if it would be okay to take pictures, and she said, “of course! That’s what most people are doing anyway!”Ah! Culture! I thought. We must go check this out. 
Now, while this may seem like an odd attraction, cremations in Bali are a big deal. I later learned that because cremations are very big and expensive ceremonies, communities save up money for years to afford them. The person, of course, has been dead this entire time. Upon their demise, they are wrapped in a sarong and buried in a sacred place to await exhumation for when they can be properly cremated. 
In our case, she marked the area of the cremation on a little map I had and told us it would start at 11:30. We didn’t get a sim card for Bali as we’re here such a short time and wifi is plentiful, but that did mean that for unguided excursions we had to just look at a map and couldn’t rely on our friend Google, and I hadn’t yet thought to take screenshots of the maps for future reference. Unfortunately, maps are not to scale here and we spent over an hour trying to find the cremation site and took what ended up being the longest route possible. Along the way we would ask people on the street “cremation?” and they would point us up the road, since everyone in the community clearly knew about the event. Theentire time the kids were googling at the roadside stores teeming with touristy souvenirs, and continually asking me if they could buy this or that. My vocal chords became worn out forming the word “No” over and over again. 
We arrived at the site tired and hungry and sweaty and only to find a confusing layout of large papier mache animals and nothing else really happening other than many dressed up Balinese taking selfies in front of them. The animals were really cool, and I suspect we would have appreciated them more had it not been for the aforementioned hungry state since I find myself struck by this picture now. 

The men were all dressed with a sarong on their bottom and varying shirts on top. Some were western tees with random sayings and some were natty collared shirts in a lightweight cotton. The women all had on a sarong, a tanktop, and over that a brightly colored lace top with long sleeves held shut with a long sash in a contrasting color. Given that I didn’t know what was happening and it was billed as a cremation, I did’t think it would be okay to take closeups of people in their clothes. Eric asked someone when the cremation was going to start, and they said maybe at 1pm! Thus sometimes does time run amok in nonwestern cultures!  We skipped going to the monkey forest to see the cremation, and I have to say this was flop. But, I told myself, we’ll surely have time for the Monkey Forest on another day. The upside was however that we had a good sense of orienting ourselves around the town of Ubud given that we walked nearly the entire way around the center. 
We made our way back to the main road for lunch, which was incredible. I had Nasi Champur, which is a cup of rice surrounded by veggies, tempeh, tofu, boiled curried egg and served with a cup of peanut sauce and crispy mung sprouts to mix it all together. Heaven. 
We made our way back to the villa for some chill time and booked a driver and tour for the next day, before going out to dinner at a small outdoor restaurant with more delicious indonesian food. This time: Mie Goreng, fried noodles with veggies and tempeh in a tasty sauce. Water and the plastic bottles it comes in are a real problem here. I do my part for the environment by just drinking recyclable glass bottles of Bintang beer whenever possible. We all have to make sacrifices where we must, no?

-s

In Bali I have notice cats walking around and catching mice and I call this Pest Patrol! They don’t kill the cats because they are sacred in Bali. 

So you are probably wondering what pest patrol is. Pest patrol is cats doing patrol to see if there are any pest around. Do you know what any of those pest are? The pests are mice! You are probably wondering why they need pest patrol. They need it because if too many mice come, they might make a problem. 😬 The problem they make is that, if it’s a restaurant, if the mice get in they could gobble up all the food. But if the cats get the mice, they are gone. Or, if mice go into clothes stores, they could nibble on the clothes or make holes or dents in the products they might sell. 
The cats are usuallly skinny with a long skinny tail that curves up a little. And they are mostly black and white. Unlike Bobby, who is my friend’s cat at home in Denver, these cats in Bali have long tails. Bobby was born without a tail. And Peeps, the other cat of my friends, is all black, but is chubby. No offense to Peeps. 

How do we control pests at home? We usually just set out mouse traps, but I don’t know about everybody else. And, we don’t get many mice either.

I feel like this is a good but also a bad idea. It’s good because it’s good for all the Bali people so that they can sell their stuff and not have to be poor. But it’s bad for all the people who are allergic to cats. 

-lb

Croc tour
When we went on a croc tour we saw all these crocs jump.

So a croc tour is like when you on a little blue boat, there’s also a bigger one but we’re talking about the small one today and where the people guides feed the crocodiles and when they’re feeding them they make them jump and tempt them a few times and then finally let them eat it. And you’re probably wondering, what type of crocs live in the green algae water? There’s both types of crocs in the river: saltwater and freshwater crocs. The difference between saltwater and freshwater crocs is the freshwater will always run away from you and the saltwater will come and eat you. Well most of the time. But if you try to run off in a zig zag they will fall off balance and not chase you. You’re probably wondering about how I felt when I saw the crocodiles jump.

 There’s many reasons to be scared of crocodiles, but here’s my opinion. Well I was scared because there were tons of crocs and I know how dangerous they are. And they also fed buffalo meat to the crocodiles. I think it’s one of their main things to eat. Did you know that crocodiles were born in tall grasses? Male crocs grow slowly their whole entire life. 
-lb

We’re in Darwin now, at the tip of the Northern Territory in Australia. It’s true tropics here – 88 degrees and humid. In our time in Australia we’ve gone from the damp cold winter of Sydney to the warmer tropical Queensland, then to Red Centre Desert and finally here. I’ve realized that our days fall into one of three broad categories : Traveling, in which we are on the move from one place to another; Touring, in which we are actually looking about at things; and Vacation days – where we just chill for a day and do very little of anything. Yesterday was a travel day, today is a vacation day, so I’m going to use it to talk about some other travel details of what’s worked so far and what hasn’t, inspired by a friend’s recent post of the same. 
What’s working, in no particular order. 
1. Travel cubes: The little travel cubes I purchased to keep our clothing compartmentalized in our backpacks are a dream. Without them, everything would be crammed into one large compartment and it would be impossible to pick out something you needed without destroying the contents. I bought one cheap set off ebay for $10, but the zippers are cheap and I think it’ll break. I spent a bit more – $20 on 2 more sets from Amazon and they’re much sturdier. Great buy. I thank every travel blogger who suggested them.

2. The backpacks: I’ve been very happy we have these as opposed to suitcases. One thing I didn’t anticipate is that in Australia and New Zealand, all packs have to be less than 7 kg to carry on. We made this happen for the first international flight by switching stuff around, but since then have been checking mine and Eric’s bag for the domestic flights and making sure that the boy’s backpack is under. 

3. The clothes: For the most part, the clothes we bought have worked out very, very well. The only time I’ve been disappointed in what I brought was when we were in Sydney and I felt woefully unfashionable and really like an American Tourist (fanny pack and all, see below). I suspect I’ll feel the same once we get to Tokyo too, though I’m guessing I could wear the most stylish clothes I own and still feel like a frump. 

4. Trip pacing: NZ was a bit fast, but expected. Everywhere else we’ve had one day after travel to have a down day and then start touring again. This has worked very well for us overall and as such we aren’t feeling travel burnout. Yet. I just asked the kids and Eric and they all said that this is their #1 thing that has been done well.

5. The degree of planning: Again, for the most part not having things entirely booked in advance has worked out very well for us and allowed us to maintain flexibility – if we weren’t up to a tour one day, we didn’t have to do it. In Darwin, I do wish maybe I’d booked a couple days out at Kakadu National Park, but perhaps it will all work out for the better, see “trip pacing” above.

6. Food: we mostly eat dinners in because it’s easier and it saves money, at least here in Australia and NZ. We’ve had some delicious food out as well, but when we can plan simple dinners at home especially after a long day of doing stuff, everyone is happier, including the parents! (Side note: everything here is made with full cream, real butter and while delicious, is also giving me a bit of a spare tire. Oof. Guess those pilates classes really were helping me at home.)

7. The technology: Discussed in an earlier post. Caveat – I couldn’t justify the money but I do wish I had a lighter ipad to truck around. It is by far my heaviest item. 

8. The kids: Have really been fantastic the entire time overall.  They have their moments, sure, but no more so (and possbly less) than they would have at home. Lesson #1 – Make sure to keep the boy fed else he turns into a gremlin. Of cranktaculousness. Yes, that is a real affliction. 

Things I wish I’d done differently:
1. Products: In the largely humid environments, bringing any sort of facewash/lotion/etc was a mistake. Our skin and hair is completely different then in arid Denver, and everywhere we’ve been has provided anything we’ve needed. This was an unnecessary source of weight. Some of the pricey ones I brought have been shipped home.

2. Bags: Eric’s backpack has a small zip off backpack he can use for when we are in cities, which mine doesn’t have. We brought a second small backpack but it’s cumbersome when traveling to wear that one on my front for the plane and then the bigger one on my back. It would have been nice to have a mid size one strap backpack for moving about that I could put my camera in also. I bought a cheap messenger bag at a Kmart here and that’s been better, but not really ideal. I have a smallish travel purse that can be and I have, sigh, converted to a fanny pack. It is SO much easier than having a purse flopping about you and my hands are free. 

3. Journal: I brought a journal to write in. Who am I kidding? I don’t write in journals. I put most everything here. Aspirational but heavy. Haven’t sent back yet, will see. 

4. Weather: Man, it was colder than we expected the first week through Sydney. We had warm enough clothes and all, and knew it was winter and wouldn’t have changed going there, but we were definitely glad to get out of the cold. 

Things lost:

1. Kiwi printed gloves, purchased in NZ. Left on the plane by the girl in a fit. 

2. The boy’s kindle, twice, recovered both times. I was wrong about who would lose theirs first! 

3. Once left in a rolled up sleeping bag, once left in a hotel room. We are TERRIBLE at sweeping hotel rooms when we leave. You’d think we’d have learned better by now.

4. A very nice headphone jack splitter with 6 out jacks so we could all watch movies/listen to audiobooks together. This was a bummer. We’ve bought 2 smaller splitters we stick together to give us 3 outs, but it’s not as good. Left on the plane from US. 

5. Nice set of markers, the girl’s. Who knows. 

6. One electronic toothbrush, the boy’s, left in Raglan. 

7. My wallet – not really lost. Forgot I’d put it in my checked luggage and had a very nervous flight from Cairns to Alice Springs. See above about sweeping hotel rooms. 
Things given away:

1. All warm weather clothes after the Uluru trip, as we won’t have cold weather until October. We brought clothes specifically for this purpose – gloves the kids were about to outgrow, fleece sweater same, and a warm hoodie I have but is hideously ugly. Salvation Army in Alice Springs, thank you. We did not get a tax receipt. 
Things sent home:

1. All souvenirs bought up until now, except for a boomerang which didn’t fit in the box. A few shot glasses, snow globes, mug, some books, aforementioned hair and beauty supplies, woodcarvings, clothes we didn’t want to give away. The painting we bought shipped separately by the gallery. Total cost $40. Let’s hope it all makes it home. 🙂
-S

We picked up our rental car first thing in the morning given that the drive from Alice Springs to Uluru was supposed to be 5-6 hours and we wanted to get there before nightfall. The car rental company rents out complete camping kits – stove, water, pots, pans, sleeping bags and a “swag” or bush bed, which Lulubelle describes in her post here. 
We had a stop at the grocery store to pick up food for the trip, then breakfast and we were on our way! The drive is beautiful, and feels a lot like driving across the Utahn desert landscape. We have a strict no screen policy in cars – we passed the time by alternately reading, listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks, and of course looking out the windows. Street signs warned us of crossing kangaroos, but sadly, none were to be seen the entire trip. Eric drove the entire way, mostly because he doesn’t really trust my driving on fast highway sections. I didn’t complain all that much, truth be told. 
Most of us have seen pictures of Uluru at some point, a large monolith seemingly rising out of nowhere on a desert landscape, so I thought I knew what to expect. I couldn’t have been more wrong. You can’t stay in the national park itself, but there is a resort just outside with hotels and a camping area. After setting up camp we hopped back in the car and drove over to the park itself. 
As you drive into the park and see Uluru rise above you, it is a humbling sight. It is unexpectedly beautiful and solemn at the same time. 

You are aware of some sort of presence there, and it’s easy to understand why this is a sacred site to the Anangu people. We first stopped at the cultural centre which tells the creation tales woven into the rock itself, the ancestors who claimed and fought and crawled through the rock, leaving their marks in the shape of dark lines and caves upon it. I read an article that compared gazing upon Uluru to reading the Iliad and indeed, it is an epic. 
We took a short hike to a watering hole on the side, where ancient aboriginals would gather for the much needed resource. Around Uluru there are many of these sites which were known to the nomadic people during times of need. The landscape of the rock itself changes as you walk around it, with small formations found everywhere, and placards telling you of the myths of how they were created. You feel the being of the rock inside your heart the closer you are. 

After this, we drove to the sunset viewing area to watch the changing colors of the rock as the sun goes down. It is a stunning sight, and quite possibly the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen. As Eric mentioned, the boy was inspired to play “Space Oddity” to the monolith at the site, and while he’s posted a picture, here’s my particular favorite. 

 We headed back to the campsite and had a simple dinner of noodles before settling into our swag beds for the night with the sky as our only cover. It’s winter here, so none of the dangerous reptiles or insects are out at night, and it was a peaceful sleep until the morning cacophony of desert birds awakened us. At least for myself and the kids – Eric found himself constrained by the beds as he is a being of unusual size and didn’t sleep much. 
The following morning we took the guided Mala walk around the base of Uluru which Eric goes into great detail in his post here and then in the afternoon drove to Kata Tjuta, an area 40 km to the west of Uluru where there are multiple large rock formations and just as many myths. Kata Tjuta is traditionally a men’s only area – the aboriginal culture is very separated by gender roles and areas – however all tourists can hike through. We chose to take the valley of the winds walk, which is well named! The breeze whipped through the air around us, and I learned that the myth of the wind is that of a snake god blowing air through the valley. 
These formations are spectacular as well, and so different from the smooth sandstone appearing Uluru. There are large rocks seemingly stuck together by a dirt cement which comprise these formations. 

I later read a book on the geology of the rocks – Kata Tjuta was formed by the rapid buildup of mountains in what was once a seabed and then the surrounding areas eroded away. The seabed was wet and muddy, trapping the larger rocks in it as geologic forces pushed up the rocks. After a scramble over some rocky slopes, we arrived at our lookout point to see the vast flat landscape in front of us, dotted with large domed shapes in the distance. 


Later that day, back at the campsite, I started to get dinner together. The boy had gotten pasta and sauce…but when I looked at the jar it was actually triple concentrated tomato paste. I heard the theme song to MacGuyver play in my head, and said to myself, “Self, challenge accepted.” I crushed some crackers in a pot and added a bit of milk until it was a smooth paste. Then I melted cheddar cheese and parmesan cheese, added salt and pepper and a spoon or two of the tomato paste and ended up with a fairly serviceable tomato cream sauce! Not bad for camp cookery! 🙂 
In the morning, we took another short hike around the base of Uluru and then back into the car for the drive back to Alice Springs, all of us wowed by the three days we had just spent there. 

-s

After traveling to NZ we went to Australia, where we flew to Sydney, then will go to Port Douglas, and after that we go to Uluru and finally Darwin. But right now I am going to talk about Sydney. When we arrived at 5:45 PM and, although we thought the weather would be nice and sunny it was raining! So then we got a cab and drove to our new home where we ordered pizza then, after eating it, went to bed. The next day my sister and I were the planners for the day and we decided to go to this very yummy dumpling place and after that we went to the Chinese friendship gardens and after that we went to the best park ever! The park included a gigantic spider web thingy and a flying fox. The flying fox is a thing where you get on a disk attached to a rope sort of like a zipline and at the end, there was a spring so you bounced back to the little platform where you started out. There was a giant thing that sort of looks like a tire swing with netting at the bottom. On the opposite side, past the giant slide, and past the hills with mini slides on them, and finally past the jets of water shooting up you reach this thing me and my sister call the water works. What they are is a ton of little canals with flaps that reroute the water and dams that you pull up to let water flow and past that is the end of  the park! My favorite thing of the park is the giant spider thingamabob because I love climbing and you can almost see the entire park from the top of it. And now this part of the day was not planned by anyone and we crossed the Plymont bridge and then got on to the train to go to home and then on the train lu threw up and that mainly concluded our first day.

The second day mom planned the day because dad also had been throwing up the whole night. So Mom, Lu and I went to the aquarium and when we finished went to a very delicious lunch place that we had happened on it because I needed to go to the bathroom, and while I was going to the bathroom, Mom looked at the menu and decided that we would eat there. It was yummy! It was called the Tempered café and you should eat there for sure. They also gave us  a little dessert and the little dessert had a this top layer of chocolate and then some lime tart then the perfect dash of coconut layer then the crust at the bottom. Then we went to the wild life park and then the best park in the world again!  Then we went for a tour of the Sidney Opera House and saw a kids short film festival there!

My mom said that I should write about how I feel and I think that although I was nervous before I am feeling better about the trip but I wish that I could see all my friends again and I think that this trip will be super fun now that we have started the trip.

 

-HF

A swag is a tent but it’s actually just like a little bag that you sleep in and it’s really nice. You could sleep in it like a tent or sleep it out in the open and it’s much better in the winter since there’s no scorpions or snakes. When we slept in our swags I was up most of the night so I got to see the moon and the stars. I will tell you about them. Sometimes the moon was surrounded by clouds and sometimes I would pop out of my swag and look into the moon and see it surrounded by clouds and the clouds were moving so fast it looked like the moon was moving but it was staying in the same spot. And when I was up late I was up reading but sometimes I fell asleep like once or twice and that gave me enough sleep to get through the day. 

Here are three facts about the moon:

1. The moon is like this plain ball and it doesn’t light up one bit but the sun reflects off any position it is and that is how the moon shines

2. The moon is made made out of Quartz, aluminum oxide and lime and four other things I picked the top mass thing. It’s mostly made out of Quartz 45.5%. 

3. The second full moon of a month is called a blue moon.
-lb

After a breakfast of lemon raspberry yogurt we got on to the bus that would take us to the gbr. On the way the bus stopped at other hotels motels and holiday inns where people boarded the bus to go to the GBR too! When we got to the port we were informed that we would be riding on the boat named calpyso 10. When we got on the boat we were asked to take off our shoes. Then we were called in to the main deck. We had been warned that the front would be soaked and if you had sea sickness you should sit on the lower deck. Although Lu sort of has motion sickness she decided to to sit on the second deck. (She is a bit crazy) and as we got onto the ocean the guide told us that the boat was much less shaky than the crew had expected, although it was still shaky. Then the guide told us that the back part that was outside would be soaked! So then we moved to the back and waited for the inevitable as you might be pondering was going to the reef and being dropped of to look at the reef. I realized that saying the tour dropped us off sounds like they left us there for an hour. Luckily they did not do that. 
The reef was amazing. They gave us noodles and a wetsuit to swim with. We swam out and took a look at the reef. Before we went in the guide had told us how to use the snorkel and the brown patches were the reef and the blue patches were the ocean. We swam towards what looked like the brown parts. First, we saw this giant thing of coral that stuck out like a thumb from the reef that showed as blue water because it was farther below. It was really amazing. You could compare it to Ayers’ rock. A few meters forward you came into the actual reef. It seemed like it was two feet below you and there were fish all around you. After a good look, lu and i decided to swim back but mom decided to stay out a bit. 
When we got back in, we heard a rumor that food was being prepared for lunch. We got fairly happy at the thought of that but learned we would only get lunch at the second stop. At the second stop, Mom told us it would be better to swim out much farther as we would see more. And one of the guides was giving a marine tour so me Mom and Lu decided to follow the tour. He told us about the coral and the fishes and I felt like that was really helpful and combined with the botanical talk that the other guide gave us during lunch. I gave my noodle to Lu and tried to swim without it but the waves were really choppy and I couldn’t stay afloat so I had to go back to the ship super soon. 
Our third and final destination was probably the most fun I had. Me and mom and lu went out together to explore the reef. We went super far out but then Lu decided to go back and Mom accompanied her so I waited for Mom to come back so we looked through it and there were these clouds of small teeny fish like a blanket. I’m surprised none got into my suit! When we finished we went to the third level of the ship and thought wow! We should have come up earlier. It was windy and dried off our suit earlier and we could see where the reef patches were. 
Then we headed back home. 

-hf

When we were at the rainforest, Mom spotted a cassowary! It was the coolest thing ever! We stayed our distance and some people were way too close. When I saw the cassowary I felt excited and glad. You probably want to know why I am glad because it is rare to see. And these are some facts about the cassowary. 1. They’re the most dangerous bird in Australia because it has an inner claw that is a foot long. 2. It’s food is berries and plants.  3. They are flightless.
And after that we went to get ice cream. My friends would like the vines in the rainforest because you could climb the vines and see the rainforest.

 

-lb

We woke up in the morning and were finally warm, having left the electric heater on all night.New Zealand is cold. I knew that, of course, from researching before we left and helpful tips from current Kiwis, but we hadn’t yet been to a hotel or Air BnB without central heating. Yesterday we woke up with our toes frozen and able to see our breath as we spoke. Henceforth, I only looked at places with both central heat and wifi as well. You know, the essentials of life. 
The previous evening, Celia, the home host/property manager, had come by to meet us and brought us 6 farm fresh eggs from her chickens, 2 of which were green shelled! We had a delicious breakfast of fried eggs, leftover baguette, pesto and cheese. 
It was also NOT raining, incredibly, and we took a stroll on the property to the trout stream just down the way. Along the way we met Pat, the farmer who owns the property, and his dogs, one of whom accompanied us to the stream. 

This was an idyllic place and it made me wish it had been a bit warmer so we could have picnicked there one night. The girl found herself lost in quiet contemplation on the little bridge. (Picture completely staged, people.  She never sits still for this long.) 

On the way back we ran into Pat again and we had a long chat about the state of farming in NZ. He runs a dairy cow operation, where he gets calves from the dairy farmers in the spring, raises them to the yearling stage and then sends them off to the stud farm and then the dairy for milking and having their calves, and then the cycle repeats. One of his dogs (the big brown one) is a working dog and does all of the shepherding and moving of the herd from one area of the farm to another, where the happy looking cows (I think) munched on grass. At one point the cows started humping each other, which of course the boy exclaimed upon. Turns out, horny cows will hump anything, even without a bull around. Go figure. The actual farmer way of saying this is that the cows are approaching heat. Somewhere around this time, the girl grabbed onto the metal wire fencing to get a closer look…and electrocuted herself on the electric fence. Thankfully, it’s not a big shock and she was more slightly zapped then injured, but STILL. 
After this, a drive across country to go to the Waitomo area. I’ve been trying to plan a trip that’s a bit more off the beaten path, and for the most part we’ve been able to do that and have loved it. Here, I failed. There’s supposed to be a hike from a highway stop a bit away that shows a lot of limestone formations and is stunning and unique. Here’s the first part of the hike. 

We started on the hike and thought, oh it’s pretty! Then : Umm…this is pretty muddy. And later: Oh man we’re now covered in mud again. Shortly thereafter: Here’s a pool where the trail is flooded! We’ll go around! And then, came an impossible flooding of the trail and we were forced to go back, though not before the girl electrocuted herself AGAIN on another electrified fence. Not to be outdone, the boy was curious how this felt and shocked himself on purpose. Yes, these are my brilliant children.

Once they stopped buzzing, we headed back to the car and admitted defeat and stepped into tourist land of the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. Eric has something of a phobia of caves and underground caverns, so it was the shorter 45 min tour we chose. The caves themselves were discovered by Tane Tinorau, a local Maori chief, and Fred Mace, an English surveyor, where they made a raft and floated into the caves and saw the glowing lights. A bioluminescent “worm” which is actually the larval stage of a small fungus-gnat (doesn’t that sound pretty) lives in the caves and lights it up from the inside, like a starry night outside. They don’t allow pictures, so here’s a stock one from the web – it really is magical, though you do feel a bit hustled in and out of the cave in true tourist fashion.  While in the boat, floating with the lights around, I started to sing “Kiss the Girl” from “The Little Mermaid,” until I was shushed by unappreciative tourists.  

I’m still glad we saw them – I had been feeling a bit regretful about missing them, so the trail flooding was, in the end, a good thing. 

-s