Glowworm Caves

One of the last sites we visited on our trip was the Waitomo Glowworm Caves near Auckland.  When I say near Auckland, I mean a 3 hour drive.  Definitely look into combining trips if you do any of these!  I didn’t really look into what the site was all about before we left, and I’m glad we didn’t, because the surprise made it so much better.

The tour started out with a guided walk through the caverns.  This was very much like Luray Caverns, or any other limestone cavern you may have seen.  I was surprised, though, by how white(ish) everything was.  I seemed to remember past caves I visited having more brown and orange in them at least, but maybe I am just remembering wrong.  Also, all the stone looked so soft, like an overripe peach or something.  I’m sure it was not as squishy as it looked, but I didn’t touch. 

After hearing some of the history of the cave, and looking at interesting stalactites and stalagmites, we ventured into a dark corner to overlook a little area of water, and see the glowworms.  You would shuffle your way toward the front, lean over the ledge, and you could spot about 10-20 little blue specks of light, which, of course, were the glowworms.

You can easily see why the original explorers were tempted to explore this cave. This was were our tour ended.

Our guide told us a bit about them, including how they make these web-like, icicle shaped, hangings that they catch flying insects in.  On the way down, our bus driver also told us that they are extremely sensitive to light and noise, so no photographs at all inside, or any accidental flash would make the glowworms stop glowing for a bit.  That would be no fun for anyone.

We walked away from there feeling intrigued, especially by the web things, but also really disappointed, thinking this might be the only glowworms we would see.  I mean it was neat, but come on, no very spectacular to see a handful spread over a big area.  Lucky for us, that wasn’t all.  Next we went on a boat ride through the “grotto.”  She had to give us the info away from the entrance to the grotto, because of the aforementioned noise issue, so she just told us we would be walking down some steps into a small boat, where we would be floating on the water through the grotto.  It was a little scary walking through the dark to boat, with only minimal pen-light beams to help if needed.  It also made it feel like we were about to go on a ride through a haunted house or something.  So by the time we got on the boat, we were already in an excited state.  We had all been warned about the light and the noise, so we all, even the toddlers, did our best to keep quiet and no phoned came out of anyone’s pockets.  It was amazing, actually, just how quiet it was. The dampness of the cave helped absorb any noise, but the way they had the boats rigged up helped quite a bit as well.  Instead of using oars or poles to propel us through the water, there were cables strung between the walls of the cave that the guide, standing on the front of the boat, would use to slowly pull us around.  You did not hear even one little splash.

The caves were completely dark, and those obviously photo-shopped blue lights were much bigger than what we actually saw, but gives a really good view of the boat and the ropes.

So here we are, in the dark, damp, silent cave, all very excited, and then we pull away from the dock….into a world of wonder.  There were millions of these tiny blue lights glowing all around us, small as a fiber optic cable.  It reminded me of being in the country on a clear moonless night, when you can see every star in the sky, except they were blue instead of white.  Confession: I also felt like Ariel during the Kiss the Girl song when the fireflies flew all around them.  The boat probably aided that fantasy. 

We were only in there for a few minutes, but it was enough to stay with us for a lifetime.  Just when we thought we had seen it all, it was time to exit the cave and get back into the real world.  Except it didn’t feel like the real world anymore.  After seeing these amazing things we never knew even existed, and having had an almost meditative environment, we came out of the mouth of the cave into a bright, warm, clear day, and the most amazing foliage.  Mom put it best when she said it felt like we were entering paradise.  I don’t think I could say it better than that, so I won’t even try.

Great Barrier Reef take 2

Our third day* in Australia, we did our second snorkeling trip.  The first trip was to a small island, where the reef was just offshore.  Today we went to the outer reef,  the Agincourt Ribbon Reefs in much deeper waters, and snorkeled off of a platform moored there.  

We used pool noodles to float instead of life vests.  Are we working those sting suits or what?

It was amazing.  First, the boat ride was much smoother and we were able to sit inside or outside, where yesterday had no indoor option, although the ride was much more relaxing yesterday.  Second, it was much nicer being based on a platform with an underwater viewing area, a boat with an underwater viewing area that you could go out in, and floors smoother than the rough sand beach.  Third, the water was very clear, since there were no waves to stir up the sand.  Last but not least, the reef was just much bigger and so were some of the fish.

Can you see through the water here that the reef is right there off the snorkeling platform.

The underwater viewing area was a little claustrophobic, but great way for us to see the fish while we waited for our lunch to digest.

This was from the underwater viewing platform also, you didn't have to swim for (or at all actually) to see great coral.  You could have sat on the snorkeling platform with your face in the water and still have been able to see all this.

Yesterday I was excited because we saw a giant clam about halfway through the snorkeling trip.  Today, as soon as you got off of the platform there was one there waiting for you, and we saw at least a dozen before the day was out.  Our snorkeling guide told us that the cool teal looking moss around the edge of the clam were actually a part of it that acted like eyeballs.  All they could really see was change in light and dark, but it was enough that when he dove down toward it, the clam started to close.  He was showing us how it is not at all like the movies where they snap shut and trap a diver’s hand.  It actually moved very slowly, and he was able to put his hand in and still pull it out, since the membrane on the inside prevented the shell from closing completely.  Not a trick we should try ourselves, don’t want to accidentally damage the poor clam, but still cool to see him do it!

And the reef was so tall!   Because the water was so deep, there was plenty of room for it to grow up and up and up, and it drops off so steeply, but with things still growing all down the side. 

Not a great shot through the window in the underwater viewing platform, but it does at least give you a glimpse of how deep the reef went.

There are turtles and sharks and sometimes dolphins in the area, but we didn’t get to see them today.  We did see one huge blue fish, a Napolean Wrassi, and we saw him up close and personal.  They did a feeding right off the snorkeling platform, and he was so eager, he actually went onto the platform and was partially out of the water.  The man feeding him told Mom that the rough surface of the snorkeling platform was actually less harsh than the coral he would normally have to push through to get at lobsters, so they weren’t concerned about him hurting himself.  Of course some other fish gathered around too, and were so focused on the food that they didn’t pay attention to us and we were able to get very close.  One large red fish almost bumped right into me! 

We just kept calling him Big Blue, but this is the Napoleon Wrassi.

We took a snorkeling tour led by a marine biologist, and he kept stressing how climate change is ruining the ocean, and things are dying at an alarming rate.  Two lessons taken from him: Do everything you can to reduce your carbon footprint (and fertilizer runoff), and see the reef while you can, because it may not be here later.  That is actually part of the reason I finally made this trip, I realized that if I had gone 10 years ago, I would be seeing way more reef, and I was worried what it would look like 10 years from now.  Come see it now (but while somehow not causing the pollution from the airplane).  It’s awesome!

*This post is out of sync with the rest of the posts because I had to wait until I got home to access some of the pictures.