Family outing time, make that two families outing time or was it three? Hard to keep track of the number here but we all trooped out for a day's invasion of the area called Otororhanga ,west of Tauranga. We firstly conquered the Otorohanga Kiwi House 16 kms (10 miles) from Waitomo in King Country. This is very impressive and an instant hit with any kids in your group. You can find many 'Kiwi' houses in all the major towns and cities across New Zealand but this one has a huge bird reserve you can walk around and an interior Kiwi house to see these shy, flightless birds. They are nocturnal creatures only coming out at night to forage and feed on insects. It would be very rare if you came across one in the wild. The Kiwis here are of the brown variety . What they did was reverse day for night so as to create an artificial moonlit environment for the kiwi and so therefore you cannot photograph inside. Never having seen one myself, I didn't know what to expect. Suddenly this huge egg-shaped bird came out from behind a bush in its cage and started slowly walking around.There was a loud screeching noise that caught everyone off guard. It sounded like a cat being strangled. Well it wasn't me so it had to have come from the bird itself. Outside you'll see falcons, hawks, owls, kestrels, kea parrots,weka birds, flamingoes and many other birds native only to New Zealand.They also have snakes and tuataras, which are tiny lizards in their cages.
Another instant winner with the children. Here you can see Glow Worms, which are larvae of a fly that suspends itself from the ceilings of caves and attracts its daily meals by glowing blue-green in the dark. This cave system also has a cave called the 'cathedral' which is where concerts can be held because the acoustics are so good. These being Limestone caves, they have the stalagmites and stalagtites formations to see but our interest was the glow-worms. You get in a boat and sail down the caves into complete darkness. There ,above your head you'll see blue-green 'stars' if you don't make any loud noise or shine any torch at them. If they go out then it takes hours for them to glow again. So there was a lot of 'shhushing' going on as we slowly made our way along the caves. Our guides looked like students and pulled us along on a rope connected to the cave walls. You could only hear the ripple of water now and again. As long as you keep your mouth shut when you look up you won't swallow anything you shouldn't!! Unfortunately you can't photograph them ,only get official postcards at the souvenir shop.
We hit the proverbial jackpot here. Little eyes grew wide with anticipation when we mentioned rabbits. Just a short distance from the caves is the Ohaki Maori Cultural Centre and a little further back up the road, the Shearing Shed. This is where you can let loose the children who'll want to pose with the outsized white rabbits. Next door is a shop that sells all sorts of products imaginable from the Angora fur of the kept rabbits. Make sure the kids have a firm grip of the rabbit, because if it gets away, guess who'll be sent to retrieve it. Souvenirs at the shop include Bungy-jumping sheep, which when you pull the elastic chord tied to their feet and let go you hear them letting out sheep sounds. What will they think of next.
