Waitomo Caves

Waitomo Caves were incredible! If you are ever in New Zealand, they are a must see!  The glow worm tour on the boat had me whispering "God you are so incredible!" And singing in "The Cathedral" underground in natural caverns was awe-inspiring.

At the end of the boat tour.
Exiting from the caves into daylight.

The glow worm tour was the first one we did. We walked with a tour guide through several caves where there were occasional glow worms cached in niches in the ceiling. They were really neat to see.

The highlight was when we got into a boat and were silently pulled by rope into a cavern with glow worms. We all remained silent (including Hannah - ahh! I was so worried about this part! But she came through like a pro!). It was pitch black - we could barely see each other. The silence, the glow reflected off the water, the scattered blue lights above our heads was amazing. We exited the boat in the open cavern where these caves were first discovered.

Getting off the boat from the glow worm tour

Then we waited for the start of our next tour. And had ice cream.

Amazing formations and light/shadows

We went on a Cave Tour next. We entered into a fake rock covering and then walked down and down around a ramp and around and around to the bottom. There was a rock in the centre at the bottom that had water dripping off onto it. We touched the water with our fingers and then flicked it off to "purify" ourselves so that bad spirits weren't carried into the caves. There is an aboriginal burial site on the property that we showed respect as guests.

Cave tour - a curtain, ribbon or pig's ear

The caves had stalactites (hanging down) and stalagmites (building up) that take forever to grow (like 100 years for an inch). And there were curtains and ribbons and waves from the rock formations. At one point we stopped and found shapes of an elephant, a mouse and other creatures.

The walkway was easy and lit up each section as we walked through. Hannah fell asleep in my arms halfway. It was so very impressive. Exiting the caves by walking up and around and up and around then into the daylight was like taking a journey out of a fantastical world back to our reality.

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On the cave tour, the guide stopped and let us each examine a glow worm up close. And then he told us about them. They are larva of a bug that hide in the dark caves and emit a lit to attract any stray moths or bugs that fly into the place by accident. They hang a long sticky goo down that sticks on the prey and then they draw it up and eat it. It's like when we were kids - did you ever have spit competitions? You know, when you leaned over and saw how far you could get the spit to drip down and suck it back up before it hit the ground. Essentially, it's like that. Only with carnivorous worms. With a glowing bum. Here's a link if you are interested in their life-cycle: Glow Worm Life Cycle

Glow worms close up

After the tours, we had lunch and played in a playground in Waitomo. Two huge tour buses with tourists pulled up. They had lunch and handed out popsicles. When they saw the girls playing, they offered popsicles to us too. We waved at them as they pulled away and dozens of people waved back.

At the Waitomo playground

We drove to Matama and stayed in a beautifully manicured, amazingly well-groomed farm home. There was sheep and one bully goat who protected them, a horse who got fed by the girls in the morning, and a cute little dog who the girls chased around. We had dinner at a really nice Italian restaurant, sitting outside under a heater.