Bay of Islands, New Zealand

This was our first time to New Zealand, other than a quick stop at the airport on our way to Australia 17 years ago. 

New Zealand is made up of the “North Island” and “South Island.”  Bay of Islands is way at the top of the North Island.  Our waiter told us Bay of Islands reminded him of Scotland and he was right.  It’s very green with lots of rolling hills.  The weather is very temperate. 

We booked an excursion to the Glow Worm Cave and Puketi Kauri Rain Forest.  The Kawiti Cave tours were first established in the 50s by Te Tawai Kaweti, great grandson of the famous Maori Chief, Kawiti.  The limestone cave system is home to thousands of glow worms spread across the ceiling surrounded by breath taking stalactites and stalagmites.  

The Puketi Forest is an ancient forest located in the heart of the Bay of Islands, and spans 37,000 acres, dotted with kauri, hardwood trees and 370 recorded species of plants. 

This area is known for its largest citrus growing in NZ.  We passed persimmon groves, vineyards, kiwi and macadamia nut orchards.  At the Kerikeri Basin, which has both fresh and salt water, we saw Kemp House, built in 1826 and the oldest wooden structure in NZ.  It is also the location of Stone Store where missionaries used to store their supplies and was also used as a trading post for kauri gum, a bi-product of the kauri tree used in all sorts of products including the ink used for Maori tattoos.

My conversation with our driver, Gavin:

            Me:  What kind of tree is that?

            Gavin:  Dead.

Even though the elm tree was indeed dead, it still looked quite lovely. 

 

Beekeepers in the North Island harvest what’s called “Manuka honey” which is very dark.  However, they were getting far less money per kilo than their counterparts in the South Island who produced a much lighter honey.  The bee keepers decided to gather samples of all the different honeys throughout NZ and took them to a university where they found out that Manuka honey has medicinal qualities and, as a result, pharmaceutical companies became very interested in Manuka honey.  It is, indeed, far more expensive than other types of honey.  

This area also has a problem with opossum brought over from Australia because it doesn’t have a predator here in NZ.  It kills all sorts of birds and vegetation and is a real pain for the New Zealanders.  

The glow worm cave was absolutely amazing.  I never saw anything like it in my life.  It was quite a trek getting in and out of the cave and back to our bus.  Although not as strenuous as spelunking can be, I think I can cross that off my bucket list. 

Michael’s Thoughts:  We were blessed with really great weather which really makes sight-seeing a pleasure.  As an old biologist, seeing the glow worm cave made me recall the life cycle of the black fly.  Glow worms spend months as larvae creating a silk cocoon, hatching as a fly, and has three days to meet a date, make whoopee, and lay its eggs.  Like the black fly, it has no digestive system and, thus, starves to death.  The glow worm uses bio luminescence to attract its prey which become entangled in long, sticky, stringy, silk material, which the glow worm sucks up like spaghetti and digests the unfortunate prey attracted to the light.  Indeed, a good example of one of nature’s strange creatures.   Because NZ has so much rain, the cave is vibrant with moisture and thus keeps growing, unlike some of the caves located in the US deserts.  It’s been a lot of fun sight-seeing in this wonderful country