J is for Jerseys: The Wool Company

Excited with our special purchases.

Four years ago Fred and I landed in Auckland to spend 2 months in New Zealand following the RWC 2011.

We collected our camper van and started to make our way to Wellington to watch the Springbok's opening game.

After the first day we realised that we were ill equipped for the cold, even though it was spring. So our first shopping spree was at The Wool Company, in Utiku along the State Highway 1, and they stock gorgeous wool clothing.

I have loved my black mohair and possum jersey coat purchase ever since.

So today I returned and had one of those 'who would have thought moments', here I was again, this time with Shawni, both of us shopping for the same jersey, this time I bought one in navy and she in black.

Even in the New Zealand summer, the jerseys will come in handy.

C is for Cave Weta: another strange New Zealand endemic

Seeing our first Cave Weta

Wow, such super long antennae!.
As we entered Aranui Cave in a chamber called the Butcher Shop, because the formations look like carcasses hanging from the ceiling, our guide showed us the Cave Wetas, suspended among the stalactites on their thin spindly legs.
Another weirdly wonderful New Zealand endemic.

A is for Aranui Cave: stalactite and stalagmite wonderland

En route from the Coromandel Peninsula back home to Wellington, we stopped over at Waitomo, which means water that flows through a hole in the ground, a key tourism spot on the North Island.

There is a wonderful expression here in New Zealand - "World Famous in New Zealand" - and as Craig says, he had not heard of either the Glowworm caves or the limestone wonders of Aranui Cave before researching the road trip.

Bus loads of tourists did suggest that  Waitomo is indeed on the tourist circuit!

So we booked both tours.

Last night the glowworms created a wonderful spectacle as we floated silently beneath their green glows, thousands of them, with their fine webs waving in the light breeze waiting to trap an insect carried in by the river.

This morning we returned to the area, all rather bleary eyed after a rough night in a motel that was noisy, trains passing the rooms, and joined the tour through Aranui Cave.

The largest stalactite, 400 000 years old!

The collection of stalactites, stalagmites, flowstones, shawls and decorative formations were very beautiful.

Colours are leached into the formations and add another dimension, from ice white to a deep chocolate brown, however I love them with a clean, waxy, pearly white look.

We all felt that the cave was a magical, mystical place and  we were refreshed and energised after the visit and ready for the journey back to Wellington.

Chocolate fountain?

S is for Silver Fern: endemic and emblematic

A bushwalk up to the Aranui Cave this morning was a treat, our guide pointing out fascinating plants, leaves that were used to send messages and of course the most important of all ferns here in New Zealand, the silver fern.

Extract from the Zealandia website:

"The Silver Fern is the most distinct and easily recognised New Zealand tree fern, especially when viewed from underneath. The underside of the fronds and the stems of the fronds near the trunk are a distinctive silver-white, giving the fern its name. It grows to a height of 10 m or more and has a thick trunk up to 45cm in diameter. The base of the trunk is a mass of old fibrous aerial roots while the upper part of the trunk is covered in the bases and stalks of old fronds.

The fern fronds are a bright green on the upper surface and reach lengths of up to 4m, arching out in a circular, somewhat flattened, crown. Young silver ferns are green on the underside and it can take the plant several years for the silvery-white colour to develop."

The silver underside of the Silver Fern

Shawni approaching the entrance to Aranui Cave