Day 21 – Luminous caves and Te Papa Museum

“Pancakes” was Tegan’s call this morning even though we couldn’t find any mix at the store.  So we went out for breakfast in town and it was delicious.  Martinborough is a very trendy place with most of the shops and food places catering to those that would pop $40 down on a good bottle of wine from the many wineries in the area.  I meant to stop into some of the wineries, but never really had a chance and from the prices at the grocery store I was amazed at how expensive the wine was coming from this region.  In Hawke’s Bay there was plenty of cheap wine for sale there and I even saw a wine sale being advertised at a winery there; think they were going for $7/bottle!  I didn’t see a single bottle below $30 at the grocery store in Martinborough.  

I am going to have to do some research and then grab some wines to take home.  So, our first order of business was calling the owners of a glow worm cave in the countryside around Martinborough.  We reached the previous owner who passed on a phone number for the current owner.  I called and explained I was a Canadian and here with my daughter and we would like to some out and see the glow worms on their property.  Well, it wasn’t a problem and we were told to come on out.  When we arrived at the property Tegan was very interested in the young lamb they had in the cage and it was tough convincing her to go with me instead of staying there with the lamb and the other girls.

We were guided down to the pastures where the caves are located and told specifically how to get to the location.  We also we told that the caves had been closed to the public for the last 2 years due to graffiti and the amount of traffic it was generating.  Also the fact that it was lambing and calving season generally there would have been no chance of seeing the cave, but for some reason they allowed us.   

The entrance of the cave was down a gentle slope to a stream that actually runs right through the limestone and created the cave that houses the glow worms.  The cave itself was only about 200 metres and exits into the pasture on the other side of the hill.  The water at the entrance was knee deep and cool and Tegan was carried in front of me as I had my camera gear slung on my back.  When we shut off our lamps we were treated to an awesome display from the glow worms.  I took several long exposure shots including one that was some 24 minutes in length.  We saw up close one of the glow worms and it looked to me to be like a earwig longer and smaller with a glowing tail piece.  

We must have spent the better part of 2 hours at the cave site and then went back to household to visit the lamb, calves and horse they had there.  I made a call to Wellington to arrange a meet up with Rob; the guy I met at the game in Whangarei.  We made plans for us to meet him and his kids at the Te Papa Museum in Wellington.  The drive over to Wellington from Martinborough is not that much fun, unless you had a motorcycle or exotic car.  It is windy and pretty dangerous; luckily it was also lined with guard rails, something that is typically rare in New Zealand to find.  The trip takes about 1 1/2 hours just to get into Wellywood, but finding parking before the France – Tonga match was another story.  We had to park some distance away from Te Papa and we while we waited for Rob to show we watched a busker on the wharf performing an act on a unicycle. 

The Te Papa Museum is a New Zealand treasure.  Rebecca, Jake and Tegan explored the various displays on the 6 floors.  The earthquake house was really cool and so was a multimedia wall you could decorate with images and videos of yourself or other pre-recorded files.  It was about 20 metres x 2 metres and you use wii type remotes to alter the display.  There seemed to be a room in the museum covering just about any topic.  It was something to see and it was free.  

Rob had tickets to the game so he and his kids departed and Tegan and I explored the waterfront and eventually found the giant jolly jumper for Tegan to play on.  I am not asking; but I bet she would like one for the backyard! 

We rode back to Martinborough and caught the tail end of game 2 of the night and the final game at the pub.  Tonga beat France and that put Canada out of third spot; bad news, we now have to qualify for the next world cup.  Tegan was given a two small rugby balls from a lady at the pub and she traded those in for a RWC 2011 ball.  We left the pub and went back to our site at the holiday park, brushed our teeth and went to bed.