SHEEP AND WORMS - BUT THANKFULLY NOT AT THE SAME TIME

March 20 and 21 - A lack of WiFi access yesterday means that I am just going to have to jam two days' worth of blogs in to one.  Honest, I was not just being lazy (although that is probably a reasonable hypothesis for those who know me).  I can't believe that our time on the North Island has come to a close, but we have seen a lot of beautiful countryside and engaged in some truly "kiwi" experiences.  As we drove around the island this week, it struck me how very much it looks like England, with a whole lot of hills thrown in.  I have to say, though, that there are fewer sheep than I was expecting - talk about bursting more of my preconceived ideas!

On Friday morning after breakfast, we took a walk through the Redwood Forest in Rotorua.  It was a lovely day (we have had good luck with the weather) and the redwoods were really impressive.  They were not as big as some of the older trees in Cathedral Grove in BC, but their size and height were still pretty awe-inspiring.  Even more awe-inspiring, however, were the women in some tour groups who managed to hike across the forest floor in extremely high-heeled boots.  That, let me tell you, is an extreme activity that not even the Kiwis have mastered!

In the afternoon, we headed out to the Agrodome Farm, a sheep-farming operation that is savvy enough to recognize that most tourists only see lambs when they are on a plate with mint jelly. The lambs were just as cute as you would expect - I am now seriously considering vegetarianism.  I'd say we were all smitten.  They also have a show which includes a really impressive sheep-shearing demonstration - honestly, all of the wool came off in less than 3 minutes with no nicks or cuts.  I would say something here about that being a much better record than me shaving my legs, but the kids thought that that would be too embarrassing.  Liam also got an opportunity to milk a cow during the show - apparently, it is much harder than it looks!

After the Agrodome, we started driving to Saturday's port of call, the Waitomo caves.  Anyone who has seen David Attenborough's "Planet Earth" series probably recalls the episode about the glow worms in the caves. (Our guide told us that they are actually maggots, but I tend to think that calling it the "glow maggot caves" would probably make for a slightly more icky brochure.)  The worms have a phosphorescent liquid in their tails which helps attract insects.  The glowworms also create hairlike, sticky strings which hang beneath them and trap the insects.  The effect of thousands of glow worms on the  ceiling is utterly amazing - it was literally like looking up into a starry sky on the darkest of nights, while being well below ground in a cave.  It was a strangely peaceful experience, particularly given that we were all actually staring at an insect's hind end.  Just before we hit the glow worm caves, we also did a tour of another cave which had some really beautiful stalactites.

Well, we are just at the hotel in Auckland waiting for our flight tomorrow to Sydney - here we come, Australia and good-bye New Zealand (for now)!