Auckland, New Zealand March 21st, 2009

Auckland. It is a city. We decided we did not want a city experience. We wanted Green Acres. Got it! We drove 3 hours into the countryside to reach a cave. Not just any cave. A cave that was used by the original Morai people to hide out when needed, seek shelter when needed, and enjoy one of God's most incredible creations, glowworms! This is the onlu place in the world where glowworms exist in caves. Unfortunately, we could not take pictures. Bear with me.... The cave is just off the roadside actually. Only a few Redwoods, yes, I said Redwoods away from the road! Who knew there were Redwoods here?? They grow quickly. The ones in the photos are only 80 years old, so said our guide. Once we past these Redwoods we were in a forrest of Fern Trees. This is one of New Zealand's trademarks. Never knew that. These trees look like palm tres but have a fan-like feathery limb that makes you feel very shaded when under them. The caves have been there for thousands of years. Inside, they were dark, wet, wide, narrow, cool,and scary. The tour lead down to a creek that we boarded a small vessel and went on a very dark excursion until we were underneath the canopy of the glowworms! It looked like somebody had gone to Wal-Mart in early November and bought all the twinkle Christmas lights available and put them on the ceiling of the cave! There were thousands of them!!! It was an awesome sight. Sadly, the life of a glowworm is only 3 months, but they keep populating the nest, so there will always be glowworms there if you ever get the chance to go see them, do it!
We had lunch at a farm. Kathleen got to help shoot a cannon and I got to help sheer a sheep! We have had enough sheep experiences on this trip for a lifetime! The countyrside as we traveled was beautiful. It looked a lot like east Tennessee. It was clean, green, and everyone was happy to see us!! We had a great day.
The city of Auckland is just that, a big city. We made it back to town to go to a dinner at what used to be an all men's club established right after the American civil war. It was interesting to hear the history and we had a wonderful meal and fun night out.