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.