I jumped back on the bus and headed for Waitomo in the King Country region of the North Island. The sole purpose of going to Waitomo was to see the legendary glowworms so after checking into the hostel we set out on a 3 hour Black Water Rafting adventure. Not to be confused with the more extreme White Water form of rafting, this version involves putting on a helmet, wet suit and boots, looking very silly and walking through caves and floating down an underground river in a rubber ring. The reason for all this nonsense is so you can witness the Arachnocampa luminosa in all their glory. As you float down the river the cave roof transforms into a night sky complete with thousands of glowworm stars.

The worms attract their prey with the bioilluminescence and catch them on web spindles that dangle up to 30 centimetres from their body, the prey is then eaten. The worm eventually becomes a fly that dies within a day of being born because it does not have a mouth. Life isn’t a complete disappointment for the tiny flies however as they spend the whole of this 24 hours mating. The sight of them all on the cave walls is beautiful and helps you forget the freezing water surrounding your body. Like I said it reminded me of a star-filled night sky, a scene off Avatar or strangely like many of my more memorable experiences on this trip like something from Disney World.

I also met in Waitomo a fellow Blue which has been a rarity on my journey. He was off the Kiwi bus and we talked about the Toffees all night over many drinks at Curly’s Bar (the only bar in Waitomo and one of the 20 or so buildings in the miniature town), it was great.