Glow Maggots, and rainy days

The glow worm caves won the poll, so we went! (never mind that we were planning to go anyway!) So it turns out that they aren’t really worms at all, but are the larval state of a fly that lives in the caves, which means they are technically maggots, but like the tour guide said, “Glow Maggots” doesn’t have the same ring to it! They glow in order to attract other bugs that have wandered into the cave, and who become the glow worm’s dinners. We also learned the hard way about why New Zealand is a considered a rain forest, it rains a LOT! We attempted to make the great walk near Tapou, which is suppose to be a magnificent hike with lakes of emerald, surreal landscapes of steaming volcanic ground and wonderful vistas. The closest we got to seeing the beauty was closing our eyes and imagining the scene from the top of the mountain as a fellow hiker who had spent the night at the top described the scene from the previous day. Why couldn’t we see it ourselves? Because it was pouring rain and the mountain top was in the middle of the cloud! It has rained pretty much non-stop ever since, and this was 3 days ago. The upside is that due to the rain we have given rides to several interesting groups of travelers, as well as run into many less people most places we’ve gone. Travelling is always a great means for meeting people of very different walks of life from all over the world. There is that automatic bond you both have simply because you’re in the same foreign place far from home. When you’re on the road travelers and locals alike are always very interesting in sharing their stories and talking about their home countries, which is one of my favorite parts of travel.

Tomorrow morning we are off to Sydney and meeting up with my pop, Ron. Hope everyone is well!