Waiotehoanga Stream

Back North from Auckland today to anchor right in the heart of Bay of Islands. Today was our one and only cruise-associated tour - a five hour trip through the countryside to Waiomio caves to see glow worms, then further afield to Kauri Forest.
We were up 7.15 for an 8.30 group meet in the theatre. Getting the kids sorted, in prams, gathering food and a place to eat, made it a tight affair. Spotting dolphins from the Windjammer buffet was a nice surprise!
We met Brody, Alyssa and Myles in the theatre, then piled onto a tender with our group of 40 or so. It was quite a lengthy one, it felt like around 20-30 minutes from ship to shore.. though both boys seemed to enjoy it.
About 30minutes to the first stop - Waiomio Caves
A short walk from the carpark, pram drop off and into the caves we went. The caves themselves were spectacular.. great waxy textured faces of stone and stalactite.. with a stream running alongside the boardwalk, deep underground. We carried kids with our group all in all around 400m down into the dark, equipped with a few lanterns. At a couple spots, we turned out the lights for the spectacle of a bizarre "starry sky" underground. Thousands of glow-worms reside here, spidery creatures that light up and glow in the dark. The scientific explanation has been omitted in lieu of the sounds of screaming children blotting out education from the realms of possibility. All kids present enjoyed/were amazed and confused by the glowing worms, but simultaneously none too fond of being subjected to lengthy cave darkness.
Next up a further 45minutes to the Kauri forest for a 500m guided boardwalk circuit. Again, any education was impossible at the back of a hoarde with a screaming child, but there was plenty of gorgeous forest to take in, in its simplicity. Some of the trees were huge and impressive, I think I heard a top 5 in size for wood girth. This entertained Ryland for about 5 minutes before he leaned back to sleeps embrace and the heavens opened up for a good downpour half way along.
All that remained was a good hour bus return to the tender port with two, well three including Myles, hungry, tired kids..
The countryside was nice, but driving volume portion to experience pretty dissappointing, especially with no snacks or opportunity to shop for kids 9-2.
Then, after another 30+ minutes on tender we were able to feed the famished pizza. Feral Axel regained himself with a self-declared "happy beLLy" complete with satisfied pat.
We were all in attendence for dinner, as we look forward to our major family group tour tomorrow.
Nat myself, sleeping Ryland and energy/experience overloaded Axel took to a 7pm light/dancing theatre/music show. This further overloaded Axel into trance mode, which meant putting him down at 8.30 impossible. After taking turns to walk it off, the only solution to over-stimulation was more stimulation.. after taking him back for a second dose of show hes finally down.
Heres hoping it's smooth sailing tomorrow.Lue lisää