After the Whanganui we drove north to Waitomo Caves, nominally a small village but actually a collection of things for tourists to do. The village is built around its famous Glowworm Caves, discovered in the 19th century by a couple of guys who thought they'd see where the rivers flowing underground went. Inside the caves they discovered that the roofs were sparkling with lights - thousands of glowworms. From then on tourists have flocked to the caves to explore and marvel at the pretty creatures. We discovered that glowworms are actually the larvae of a small fly, and although they're pretty they're also carniverous and lure unsuspecting prey in through the light, which is generated from bodily waste. Lovely.
The day we arrived in Waitomo was sweltering, so we spent a lazy afternoon having a couple of beers in the holiday park and playing chess. Overnight it rained, and we all slept in; though it wasn't as though there was anything to do!
The day's big activity was our caving trip, with the Legendary Blackwater Rafting Company. We'd picked something that looked a bit adventurous and involved abseiling, caving, and blackwater rafting (otherwise known as floating down a river in an inner tube). In the event it wasn't particularly adventurous, but it was a lot of fun. First we had to get kitted out in wonderfully-flattering wetsuits, helmets and little white wellies:
Then we got taken to the cave, and taught how to abseil:
After that we went underground, abseiling down a 30m hole into the cave. I was surprised at how not-scared I felt, given my dislike of going over edges of things. Our guide Dan insisted on taking photographs every step of the way, but it did mean we got a record of the caving!
The underground tour took us down passages into a deep cave with plenty of glowworms hanging from the ceiling. They looked really beautiful, glimmering away up there. Close up we could see the silky threads they use to catch their prey, also glimmering. We floated and then scrambled and tried climbing, and also did a bit of swimming. There was one wall in particular none of us managed to negotiate in the way we were supposed to, and all of us fell into the river. Thankfully the wetsuits kept us relatively warm, although without gloves fingers tended to get a bit chilly!
After a couple of hours underground we emerged into the daylight, and were taken back for showers, soup and bagels.
In the evening we met up with one of our caving group for drinks and a few games of pool at the Waitomo Caves Tavern, a happening sort of place which kicked us out at 11pm!
From Waitomo it was on to Auckland - more of that tomorrow.
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