Today was a travel day. Leaving Auckland at 9:00 we traveled almost halfway down the North Island to arrive around 5:30 at Lake Taupo.

En route we visited the Waitomo glow worm cave. Discovered in 1887, the cave is a beautiful example of subterranean limestone caves carved by water percolating through limestone for millennia. Stalagmites. Stalagtites. But most interestingly GLOW WORMS. The roof of the cave is covered with bioluminescent maggots of the fly Arachnocampa luminosa ( yes, glow worms is a lot more romantic moniker). The maggots adhere to the cave ceiling and secrete long strands of threads that trap incoming insects attracted to the blue bioluminescence thinking that is the way out of the cave. Trapped!!! We traveled the last section of the cave in a small boat on the river flowing through parts of the cave. In places where the light was extremely dim, the blue light spots are almost like watching the Milky Way on a clear dry night. I can only imagine how astonished the original explorers were.

While there are no wineries in this area, the landscape is strikingly beautiful- rolling hills, verdant pastures and pockets of forests dotting the post card beautiful countryside. Sheep and cattle are numerous. In fact, while NZ has 4.5 million inhabitants, there are over 30 million sheep. Dairy products are the second largest industry after tourism. So yes the countryside is covered with income-producing livestock.

Lake Taupo is the largest lake in NZ at 616 sq km and 610 ft deep. Unfortunately, I did not get any good photos of the lake.