{"id":3078,"date":"2018-11-21T14:47:07","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T22:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/?p=3078"},"modified":"2019-03-06T15:36:27","modified_gmt":"2019-03-06T23:36:27","slug":"geysers-and-glowworms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/2018\/11\/21\/geysers-and-glowworms","title":{"rendered":"Geysers and Glowworms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Crossing the North Island in search of glow worms, we found other strange creatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Made our first meal last night in the van, which has a compact kitchen in the boot. We made a passable pasta puttanesca with ingredients we got on the road, but I’m looking forward to better groceries from a real store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wine we picked up at Cable Bay paired nicely with the sulphuric scent of the bubbling earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the morning we headed to Te Puia<\/a> for more geothermal wonders and a better understanding of M\u0101ori culture and architecture. I was worried it would feel a bit put-on, but it’s a working arts educational center, and the guides are all locals with deep connections to the land. I am impressed that New Zealand has managed to maintain as much of their native culture as they have; it’s a far cry better than we’ve done in the US and Canada. I wonder if simply colonizing later in history meant that the settlers weren’t able to slaughter as many people as they might have liked to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n\"Pohutu<\/a>\n<\/div>
Pohutu Geyser<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
T\u0101ne, God of the Forests<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the afternoon we drove to Ruakuri cave in the Waitomo district. We took a walking tour so I could do a bit of photography, but it was hard even with a monopod to get stable long exposures. You can see great photos on their website<\/a>…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n\"Ruakuri<\/a>\n<\/div>
Spiral Entrance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n\"Glow<\/a>\n<\/div>
Glowworms<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

We also enjoyed petting animals at a farm near the entrance, and getting pecked on by some enormous ostriches and tiny ponies. Authentic!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n\"Hungry<\/a>\n<\/div>
Hungry Eyes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Genuine Pony
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Alpacas on Patrol<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crossing the North Island in search of glow worms, we found other strange creatures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[128],"class_list":["post-3078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-down-under","tag-new-zealand"],"geo":{"latitude":-38.2662544,"longitude":175.0790253,"description":"Ruakuri Cave, Ruakuri Bushwalk, Waitomo Caves Village, Waitomo District, Waikato, 3981, New Zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3078"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3101,"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3078\/revisions\/3101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levinger.net\/josh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}