Whangarei Falls and Other Stops Along the Way

On our way home we made a couple of stops.  The first was in Kawakawa.  It’s like most small kiwi towns along the way, with the exception of a set of famous toilets.  Yes, you read that right, toilets, loos.  These aren’t just the run of the mill loos.  These were designed by the famous architect Hundertwasser (well not famous to me – but apparently well known in architect circles.  His work can be found in Vienna and Osaka).  He was born in Austria and migrated to Kawakawa where he lived without electricity from 1973 until his death in 2000, during that time he designed these bathrooms. 

This mosaic couch is across the street.  It didn’t say if Hundertwasser designed this as well.  It looks to be very similar so I wouldn’t be surprised.

 

 

 

Another stop we made along the way was to the Kawiti Marae Glow Worm Caves. Unfortunately, you can’t take pictures inside.  I found these next two on the internet.  They will hopefully show you what I’m trying to describe.

 

 

 

 

Glow worms only exist in Australia and New Zealand (at least this is what we were told, I’m wondering if that is really true).  They form hammock like sacks to hang from the ceiling of the caves.  From these they make what was described as fishing lines coming down from the hammocks.  These are covered with their saliva to make the sticky and are used to catch mosquitos, flies, moths and even each other when they turn into flies.  The brighter their glow the hungrier they are.  We stopped several times as we made our way through the cave where we were shown colonies of them.  It was really cool.  Their glow was bright enough that even deep inside the cave we could see our hands.  If you’re wondering, the life cycle of a glow worm consists of – 11 months as a worm, two weeks in a cocoon where it transforms into a fly.  Once it leaves the cocoon they have 3 days to mate and lay eggs before they die.  They do all this in the dark.  This is where they often become food for fellow worms when they fly into their fishing lines. 

 

It’s interesting that you have miles and miles of rolling hills and then out of no where you get these huge rock outcroppings. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our final stop was Whangarei Falls.  These are the loos available as you enter the park.  I took the picture to show the Maori translation.

This is a view from the top of the falls looking downstream.  There was a nice circular hike going around the falls allowing you to see them from all sides. 

Notice the monkey in the tree – oh ya, they don’t have monkeys in New Zealand.  That must be Nicholas.