3 July, last day in Rotorua. Still raining off and on. We traveled a couple of hours to see the glow worms at the Waitomo caves. It turned out to be dryer in the cave then outside. After a look at the top of the cave we descend to the bottom section and jump in a boat to go the last 50 metres or so to the bottom opening of the cave. It is from the boat you get the best look at these strange creatures. There were literally thousands of these snotty bio luminous creatures hanging from the roof of the cave. I’m glad I don’t believe in reincarnation as I’d never want to come back as a glow worm. There’s not a lot going for them. They live in the dark, drop a luminescent fishing line of snot to catch unsuspecting flying insects and with a short lifecycle of 9 mths, pupate and emerge as an adult moth with no mouth or digestive tract. Without ability to eat....you guessed it, just quick sex with the opposite sex (lucky it’s in a dark cave so you don’t have to be too fussy), lay eggs if you’re a female and then die. And if that’s not bad enough there’s a fair chance you’ll get caught in the snot of glow worm cousin get eaten...so yes they are also cannabals. It was still raining by the time we finished the tour, so we headed off back to Rotorua.

Alistair Alex and I had organised a mud bath and hot spa at Hells Gate the geo thermal park. If we thought the smell of rotten eggs was bad in Rotorua, then Hells Gate was worse. Jane didn’t want to join us; she doesn’t like anything that resembles a hot tub, describing it as bathing in human soup. The mud bath wasn’t thick sticky mud, but a hot watery grey slurry. While we all accept people pee in public pools, I had to hope that no one had done a number two in the mud pool. Given the smell and consistency of the mud you just wouldn’t know what you were really rubbing into your skin. The pool was replenished with water and mud from a hot steamy spitting orifice. Given the environment, I described it as Satan’s anus. After a quick rinse off it was into the hot mineral spa. It wasn’t clear water but a milky colour full of mineral goodness. All in all it was surprisingly relaxing. The only downside was that even 2 days and 3 showers later our skin still smells of sulphury goodness.