Yawning and stretching as I clambered down from Jimi onto the cold farmyard earth so bright and early was a delight. The cows and horses were pointedly staring at us and lambs could be heard a short distance away.

We had to collect a parcel from Auckland later in the day, as it had failed to be delivered three consecutive times. With a little more haste injected into our day we scoffed down some beans on toast and were on our way.

Arriving at Waitomo caves the first impressive thing you see is the car park; you have to drive down a vertical slope in order to get to it. Over taking an Asian family that had gotten their crampons out to scale the car park, we hustled into the huge domed area that housed the opening to the caves.

My Twin had again offered some sage advice regarding Waitomo caves saying that (quote), 'They are an absolute must!' Therefore we lined up outside the cave entrance full of enthusiasm with our cameras poised in eager anticipation of the spectacles within!

Anticlimactically, we were told by our guide that photos weren't allowed on the tour. Following this myself and a few more Brits lolled about at the back of the queue while rapidly turning the flashes on their cameras off ready for some illegal, stealthy photos later on (you have to love the way that Brits see rules as a challenge rather than a necessity).

Inside, the poor tour guide was reaching. Admittedly, for the first part of the tour there wasn't much to show except for a pretty run-of-the-mill cave. However, this didn't stop the tour guide (a small man that had trouble saying the word stalactite) pointing out rocks that looked like things... 'We call this rock The Dog. Can everyone see the dog's face there?' ...blank expressions on everyone's faces. This trivial and eye rolling event took place for around twenty minutes. 'Just show us the bloody glow worms' was stamped on everyone's forehead.

Eventually, when the group failed to appreciate the brilliance of 'The Elephant Head' rock our guide sort of slumped his shoulders and silently lead us to the glow worms. Quite disgustingly, glow works are actually maggots. A clever marketing ploy as I doubt many people would be very keen to come and see the famous maggot cave.

The glow maggots themselves emit a small,bluish light in order to coax insects into believing that it is a way out into the open sky. Hanging down around these lights are little 'lines' that look identical to human hair and are incredibly sticky. The maggots use these lines like a fisherman and reel in their prey. Apparently, they can reel in and eat something as large as a snail - pretty vile.

Apart from the hideous back story, the glow maggots did look beautiful (at a distance). They made a grand spectacle, similar to that of a cloudless night sky, and a boat journey at the end of the tour showed this to a staggering degree. Through the deepest parts of the cave there were no lights and we were asked to sit in silence as our guide pulled our boat through the darkness using ropes mounted to the low hanging ceiling. In the darkness a million twinkling lights could be seen far above our heads which really was quite magical.

At the end of the tour, our boat had to wait quite a while for a Spanish woman, who had seen fit to wear stilettos, to get out of the boat and jarringly stagger up the slatted steps. Making the most of the free wifi at the caves we mapped where we would stay and set off North towards Auckland and our undelivered parcel.