May 16, 2013 in Tauranga, New Zealand
We took a little break from the boat work and preparations for our imminent Fiji trip to visit Mclaren Falls, about 20 minutes from our boat by car.
The falls were really beautiful. The hike to the falls was beautiful. The drive was beautiful. Yea, yea, New Zealand’s beautiful – what’s new?!?
Part of the attraction there are the glow worms along the path to the waterfall. I was expecting to see maybe one or two but when we stuck our heads into a dark hollow under an old tree root system, it looked like a starry sky.
I just found out that the “glow worms” are actually the larvae of a type of fly – actually the maggots from the fungas gnat! Not quite as romantic as the starry sky metaphor, is it? If you want to learn more, try here.
Just a little side note: these pictures were taken, hand-held, well after sunset. We wanted to visit the falls late in the evening so we could see the glow worms in the dark. Our little Canon camera (Powershot SX260HS) has a handheld night scene mode where the camera takes multiple exposures and combines them to make a pretty sharp final image. I’m really impressed with it. -Rich
