New Zealand - Day 9

 October 26

While in New Zealand, the boys became a little obsessed with Kiwi's - the national bird.

So we added a quick stop at the Otorohanga Kiwi House so the boys could see a live Kiwi.

They were hard to spot because they are nocturnal, but we lucked out and were able to spot multiple birds in a various habitats.

Seeing these bird in person was definitely worth a detour from our plans.

From there, we headed to the Raukuri Bush Walk.

A popular trail in this area with some cool caves you could weave in an out of.

Definitely worth the stop.

On to our final activity of the day and something we had all been looking forward to - 

The Waitomo Caves!

These caves are famous for the "glow worms" hanging from the rock ceilings and walls.

We came to learn that they are not actually worms, but maggots in their larvae stage.

We agreed that a glow worm cave is more attracting than a maggot cave!!

The water was so cold . . . around 55 degrees.

The wet suits were helpful but it was still pretty cold and a shock to the system!

We survived!!