Waitomo Glow Worm Caves

We were told to remain silent during our boat ride through the cave because noises cause the worms to turn off their glow so to speak. Nor could we take pictures so we actually paid the $20 for the photographer to take our picture before the trip and superimpose us onto many different backgrounds. Cheesy but somewhat effective for our purposes.

The word Waitomo in Maori means “water hole”. This cave system was not the largest we have toured but does have the most interesting inhabitants. What you see us pointing to here are tendrils of snot put out by each glow worm to help it catch its food. When an insect buzzes by and gets stuck on the goo it then retracts the tendril and eats its meal. Each worm puts down 5 or 6 of these gross sounding things.

The cave reaches a depth of about 100 feet below ground. Many stalactites and stalagmites were visited. It takes about 500 years for a stalagmite to grow up to one inch! No wonder they did not want us touching them.

Here is one final cheesy picture of us in love. The photographer did a nice job catching the sentiment. She ended up being our tour guide through the cave also. As with all other people we encounter leading trips, she had a wonderful personality and quick wit to boot.

Although the pose was the same, the background images of the glowworms were what we actually saw when we floated in total darkness through the cave. We must say that the complete stillness along with silence in our boat created a magical aura. Fabulous experience.

Once out of the cave we could take pictures again. Here is our group exiting the boat. Our guide stood on the front of it (very small area) and pulled us through the cave on a series of ropes hung from the ceiling. I asked her if she had ever fallen in and she replied “only once”. Must have been embarrassing eh? She was a fabulous guide who even sang us a Maori song usually sung around sacred events and places.

After our tour we took a nice mile long hike around the grounds to see what views were available. Cool path actually. We met a teenager sitting near the bottom and asked why he did not go on the hike with his parents. He said that he was tired after playing 8 hours of cricket the day before. We chatted him up a bit on the rules of cricket and found him quite interesting. He was on a travel team from Brisbane, Australia. I guess travel team has a whole other meaning around here.

We had recently purchased some fiddleheads at a grocery store and fried them in butter to see what they were like. We have also tried pickled fiddleheads. The pickled ones were better in our opinion. A fiddlehead is the top of a baby fern plant as it germinates and breaks through the soil in the spring. The ferns here in New Zealand are tremendously large. Larger than many trees here in fact. Check out the fiddlehead in the middle.

This was the view when we reached the end of our hike Extremely lush and verdant. The hotel on the right reminded us a bit of the Mount Washington inn we have stayed at on a few “important” anniversaries. It is called the Waitomo Caves Hotel. As stated in the blog before, New Zealanders have a literal way of naming things.

Saw this going on near a rugby field on our way home from the caves. We turned around and found a spot to park before hopping a few fences to watch. A teenager approached us with the question “how can we use social media to promote this event? No one seems to know we are playing here.” We explained that we were not from around here so could not really help her but then asked her what they were playing. It is a form of polo called lacrosse polo for women. Instead of smacking the ball downfield with a mallet, the women used a stick similar to a lacrosse stick back home to retrieve ground balls and pass them on to teammates. Pretty cool to watch.

Here is a short video of the game in progress.

With the roads being so twisty and narrow we are happy not to be here during the “frosty” months of winter.