We finally made up for that by taking a getaway weekend away from the kids a few weeks ago. We drove up on Saturday afternoon through the Tongariro National Park area and arrived in time for a fabulous dinner at Huhu Cafe right in the middle of "town". (Waitomo is actually just a couple shops and cafes, a few accommodations, and of course, the caves.)
The next morning, we did the "Triple Cave Combo", beginning with Ruakuri Cave, then proceeding to Waitomo Glowworm Cave and finally ending at the Aranui Cave. Each cave is a very different experience and compliment each other well, thus making for a terrific day of caving.
Ruakuri Cave was first discovered some 400 to 500 years ago by local Maori people, and then was re-discovered and named in the early 1900s by a local Maori chief. Ruakuri means "den of dogs" and was so named because the cave apparently had wild dogs that were living nears its entrance when the chief discovered its existence. Having the dogs subsequently killed, the chief established the cave as sacred ground, and the chief is buried in the caves original entrance.
To respect these burial grounds, the cave is now accessed from a different location, through a very man-made looking edifice...
...and once you enter, you descend via a huge spiral walkway, making it the only cave in the southern hemisphere that is accessible by wheel-chair. We spent over an hour inside, looking at stalactites (they grow down), stalagmites (grow up), which grow at incredibly slow rates - just over 1 mm per 100 years! Here are some very pretty stalactites.
And here is a cool pic of a stalactite and stalagmite that have joined to form a "pillar"...
And then finally, we also saw some glowworms up close, and the best part of this tour was that we were allowed to take pictures of the glowworms, so Jen got all of these great photos while the tour guide shone light on them from an angle so we could see the sticky threads they use to capture food.
Our favorite part of the tour was when we came to the underground river and waterfall. Inside the cave, this tiny one meter or so waterfall sounds quite deafening, and then, to our amazement, people on an underground river-tubing expedition floated on by, all the while singing very loudly to Elton John's Candle in the Wind. It was loud and very eery, specially because we couldn't quite make them out though they were floating along just beneath us.
Next up for us was the Glowworm Cave, which is the most genteel of all the caves. It is a relatively short walk and ends with a boat trip that goes upstream on an underground river just feet below a glowworm strewn cave ceiling. At the end of the boat trip you emerge outside of the cave and take a short walk back up to the cave entrance area. No photos were allowed inside, but our guide did allow us the one photo just as we got to the exit of the cave.
And, we did gather lot of interesting information on glowworms (Arachnocampa) that we bet you didn't know! Such as...
- The glowworms live most of their life in a larvae stage, and can grow to be about 3-5 cm long.
- They emit a light to attract midges and insects to fly up into these sticky lines they produce.
- Their prey float into the caves on the river, then fly toward the lights, thinking they are perhaps an exit to the cave! Instead they get stuck in the lines just as it would in a spider's web.
- When prey is scarce, the glowworms turn to cannibalism, eating each other or their eggs.
Having a little time before our next tour, we had a coffee and lunch, and then went for a gorgeous short hike (called one of the best short walks in NZ) right near the entrance to the Aranui Cave. Beautiful native bush mixes in with caves, tunnels, and rivers that disappear underground. Here is a good shot of Jen as she emerged from one of the short tunnels that are on the walk.
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