Auckland, New Zealand (d)

On Wednesday 16th October, we landed in New Zealand, specifically in Auckland. We experienced a little cold shock because it was about 15 degrees colder compared to Hawaii.

This morning, we unpacked our winter clothing and prepared for our tour. The journey to the Hobbit film set took two hours through the countryside. During the drive, we were able to see some of the landscape. As many claim, the landscape here is somewhat similar to that of Switzerland. However, there are hardly any mountains here in the north, only hills. When we arrived at the film set, we found the information about the making of the film very interesting. For example, an artificial tree was created, with each leaf being sprayed three times. The houses and other props were simply adorable, as everything was in miniature. We were glad that it didn't rain during our tour and that we were allowed to warm up in the bar by the fireplace at the end. After a small lunch, we continued to the Waitomo cave. In this cave, not only does a river flow through the darkness, but there are also thousands of little glowworms hanging from the ceiling, illuminating the dark cave with a bluish shimmering light. These glowworms are not related to the glowworms we know. Rather, the lights you can admire here are the larvae of fungus gnats hanging from the ceiling. They secrete sticky threads and let them hang from the ceiling. To catch as many insects as possible, these threads shimmer in a bluish light (in comparison, European glowworms glow more yellow-green). This attracts the prey, which then gets trapped in the threads. From the boat we were in, we could admire the ceiling of the cave, which looked like a starry blue sky. It was truly an amazing experience. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos, so I will upload a sample photo that comes pretty close to reality.