Rotorura, Waitomo Caves, Lake Taupo, Mount Tongariro
In 2008, after two exchanges in Kawana Waters and Brisbane, Australia, AlteCocker flew to Auckland, where she had a home exchange in Kamo, New Zealand. Kamo is located north of Whangerai about 2 3/4 hours from Auckland in the area called Northland. AlteCocker met her home exchangers in the airport in Auckland and picked up their car there as they waited to fly to the United States. Instead of doing a direct drive to Kamo, AlteCocker drove to south to knock off Rotorura, Waitomo Caves, Lake Taupo and Mount Tongariro. Obviously, the trip was rushed. Rotorura is known for its geysers and Waitomo is known for its glowworm caves. If AlteCocker had to do this trip over, however, she would have passed on Rotorura and Waitomo and concentrated on Lake Taupo and Mount Tongariro. Rotorura and Waitomo get a lot of publicity. If you have been to Yellowstone, however, Rotorura is a bit disappointing. It is comparatively small and people actually live in the National Park area unlike the system in the US. Insofar as the glowworm cave is concerned, there turned out to be one in Northland and one glowworm cave is much like all the others (same with Maori shows, by the way). The only reason to go to Waitomo is to experience the adventure caving. Since AlteCocker is beyond the age for such activities, she could have just seen the one near Kamo and forgotten about the ones in Waitomo. Having said that, she would have felt cheated if se had not stopped in Waitomo and Rotorura due to all the hype about those places.
Now about Lake Taupo and Mount Tongariro--those are really spectacular and AlteCocker wishes she had spent more time in both those places. Who knew? They are not in the guidebooks' "A" list--which is the problem with all such lists. It does depend on the person making the list.
Now about Lake Taupo and Mount Tongariro--those are really spectacular and AlteCocker wishes she had spent more time in both those places. Who knew? They are not in the guidebooks' "A" list--which is the problem with all such lists. It does depend on the person making the list.