Whangarei, New Zealand - Polarsteps

Hot Water Beach - Cathedral Cove - Waipu Caves New Zealand, travel day 142 As I begin to feel like the end of the trip and the weather doesn't look appealing, once again lazy myself I snoozed the alarm too much and we didn't go anywhere for sunrise. So we had a shower and breakfast and then departed to Cathedral Cove. Sure thing it wasn't crowded as I expected and that made me happy, the place is beautiful, once again nature showing off like never before. We were almost alone and that let me take the time to find the pictures and flying the drone, if the place is amazing from the ground, doesn't disappoint from above. After an hour or so it was time to move on, we checked weather in this beautiful Coromandel peninsula and it didn't look promising so we skipped some parts of it and kept driving towards Waipu, it was a long drive, and as I said before driving bores me, especially when the roads are not too scenic. Anyway 4h later we arrived where we wanted, Waipu Caves, to see the Glow worms. We had read comments and reviews and it looked promising yet we had to get prepared for a muddy and slippery place. First attempt I'm going with the tripod in one hand and flip-flops, that clearly didn't woke out and made me go back to the van. Second attempt I'm going barefoot, and my hands are free, everything goes inside the backpack, that seems to work better. Once we get in the cave no much after 2 min we had to cross a stream almost knee deep, certainly the water is cold but manageable. Kept us going inside but soon we could see this spectacular sky of Glow worms, lightning blue when our torches were off, we had never before seen something similar. We continue passed the second room and the cave started to be a bit more challenging, climbing fallen slippery rocks that made me realize it wouldn't take us any further and I considered that a bit dangerous, so back to where we saw the sky and prepare for pictures. This is pitch black, we just had our headlamps which were doing it's job but when turning them off we couldn't see a centimeter in front except for those little bright Glow worms. We spent about an hour trying to find the right angle and light, I was so happy withe results, and really amazed by Claras patience for the next, and the next, and the last, and the other last shot. I could be there for hours however it was cold and humid, so we decided to head back to the van for some sleep.