Today we drove all the way out to Maracopa falls, followed by the natural land bridge, then on to the Otorohanga Kiwi house, and lastly Spellbound glow worm caves before finally traveling home. It was a lot of driving, but honestly, a really amazing day. Maracopa falls was glorious and we happened to time it just right so we had the falls completely to ourselves. The land bridge reminds me of a cathedral and it’s said that it is a sacred place of the spirits. The kiwi house gave us a chance to see the nocturnal kiwi bird. The glow worm caves were amazing as well. We walked through a cave learning about the worms and their life cycles before heading to a second cave and seeing a giant moa skeleton - it had fallen through a ‘tomo’ - a sink hole - and into the cave approximately 12,000 years ago.

We stopped for food in a very small town, Te Kuiti, which funny enough was exactly where I had dinner with my cousin Julie almost exactly 1 year ago. I can’t believe we actually decided to come here and made it happen. It still feels unreal sometimes.