Glowworms and Goodbyes

We spent last weekend enjoying the last of our visitors for a couple of months. Gladys was in town after her tour of New Zealand, and mom and dad arrived back from their excursion on the south island to spend their last weekend in New Zealand. On Friday, after Gladys and I took in a Les Mills fitness class (FYI - this is the home of the Les Mills...Body Pump is part of the national identity here!), we loaded up the Subaru and went to the Auckland War Museum. It's an impressive structure atop one of the volcanic peaks that dot the Auckland skyline. After a nice lunch in the cafe, we took in the Maori cultural performance, complete with haka. I was worried that Georgia would freak out during the performance (especially since we are in full-on stranger anxiety now), but she loved every minute. That night, Gladys kindly babysat the little lady so we could go out to eat for dad's birthday - we found a great haunt in Ponsonby with some good eats. We'll be back.

Auckland Museum - a great way to spend a rainy day

Mom, especially, got really into the Maori cultural performance

Saturday was the highlight of the weekend. We rented an 8 passenger van (referred to here as a "people mover"), and tackled the 2.5 hour drive to Waitomo to visit the famous limestone caves. There are more that 300 mapped caves in this region, and some of them house the famous glowworms which are numerous and light of the ceiling of the caves like a mesh of thousands of tiny white lights. It is magical, and so too is the structure of the caves themselves. They are surprisingly large with very high ceilings and intricate limestone structures, and some of them have rivers and waterfalls coursing through them. We visited two of the caves - the Glow-worm Cave, and Ruakuri Cave which has special Maori cultural significance as traditional burial site.

In Ruakuri Cave

Check out these stalactites

All good things must come to an end, and so they did on Sunday. Gladys left early in the morning, and after enjoying a beautiful 'winter' day in Auckland, we delivered K and S to the airport on Sunday afternoon for their flight to San Fran. Five weeks went quickly, but it was great visit. Luckily, Scott had much of last week off so it was a great way for us to ease into a more routine life in Auckland, now just the three of us again.

Farewell brunch in St. Heliers