Waiuku and Waitomo

Craters of the Moon

It had been 25 years since I had seen him and I didn't remember him at all, when we met again in Waiuku. He drove us along the beach in the pouring rain, through small rivers that had formed, and past the remains of tree roots, exposed. We'd get closer and closer to the waves, and zig-zag around the tideline, and then when we couldn't go any further, we got out and wandered around on the black sand, feeling windswept in the rain.

It continued to rain as we walked up to the lighthouse, where apparently there are usually good views, but I could just see a blankness, a whiteness, where the fog had settled in. I remember being able to see phormium, as we walked up the steps.

We visited my aunt and uncle's house, but they were in England at the time, and it felt somehow weird being in their house while they weren't there.

That night, we stayed in Waitomo and visited a local pub, and tried out the local cider and the feijoa Archers. I had only tried the fruit, feijoa, a few weeks before, for the first time, in Melbourne.

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I floated through a cave on a boat, looking up at the glow-worms above, mesmerised by the glowing. After that, I walked through the spiral entrance down to Ruakuri Cave, and was intrigued by stalactites, weird shapes forming. It seems so magical that such things exist underneath the ground and I wonder what else is below.

We headed onwards from Waitomo to Taupo.

Steam arose from the Craters of the Moon, and I stared at the mud bubbling and the steam, so much steam, and at the pretty colours of the rocks. I hadn't imagined the moon would have so much vegetation.