Worms in Caves

Hey, there, Tom here.  Let me fill you in on a bit of glowworm cave action.

We decided that family time was just as important as school time, so we made our kids skip school on a Monday at the risk of being perceived as bad parents.  We drove them up to a place called Waitomo where there is a lot of limestone under the ground.  In case you have forgotten your high school earth science course, let me remind you that limestone is often made of the skeletons of marine organisms - basically old shells.  That makes the rock high in calcium carbonate and prone to weird kinds of erosion if the water flowing over it or through it is slightly acidic.  In Waitomo, the erosion has created crazy cave systems under a pretty unbelievable karst landscape.  Karst, in case you also forgot what that is, is a landscape composed of partially dissolved rock, so strange rock formations stick up out of the earth all over the place.

What makes Waitomo particularly cool is the presence of glowworms in many of the caves.  The New Zealand glowworm is actually the maggot of the indigenous fungus gnat, but "Fungus Gnat Maggot" is less marketable than "Glowworm."  These weird little beasts live on the roofs of caves and spin webs made of silk.  They then drop down as many as 70 silk lines from the nest, each a couple of inches long, covered in mucus droplets.  These lines act as snares to catch unsuspecting flying insects.  The maggots then start glowing due to a bioluminescent chemical reaction in their excretory organs.  Sounds gross, but it is one of the most amazing natural sights I've ever seen.

We arrived in Waitomo in the morning after a two-hour drive.  Here is a photo of sheep (of course) running over the karst landscape.  

Here is the family enjoying some karst.

We joined a tour with about 6 other folks and made our way to one of the many glowworm caves around Waitomo.

Here are the boys walking along the path to a profusion of plant life.  At the center of the patch of forest is a river and a cave entrance.

Our guide took our photo before we entered the caves.

We were issued helmets with lights.  The boys were well pleased.

Here is the cave entrance.  There is a little path to the right that entered the cave on a rock ledge, so we didn't have to wade in.

One last photo before the cave!

OK, so cave photography is hard.  There are no good photos of the cave.  I can offer this one, which shows the glowworm threads as lit up by the guide's torch.  They look unpleasant here, but you have to imagine this: a long dark cave with a river running through it, completely black except for the glow of thousands of tiny blue lights covering the roof of the cave.  We were sitting in a little rubber raft, floating down the length of the cave, carried by the river with only the sounds of rushing water echoing off the cave walls, looking up at a brilliant starry night of blue lights.  It is probably best that there aren't any good photos - they wouldn't really capture the beauty of the experience.

 Here is a photo walking back out of the cave.

We entered another cave, this one without glowworms, and this is a photo of it.  Best I could do.

Afterwards, we stopped by the iSite.  There are iSites in almost every town of any real size in New Zealand - they are like little tourist information centers.  Here is Aidan learning all about karst by standing on it.

To finish our trip to Waitomo, we went on a little nature walk nearby.  It was amazingly cool.  There were caves everywhere.  Here I am checking one out.

Here is Jasper, wielding his fern greatsword.

This is the river the runs through the park we were in.

The path itself wound through some natural caves.

Here is another good shot of the river.

Aidan took this portrait of the two of us.

Here are a few more cool looking caves in the wall of the valley.

In the end, Jasper defeated our Corolla with Exfernibur and we were able to return home safely.