Day 7 - Waitomo Caves
Our first night of freedom camping was a success! When we woke we found we'd got a lovely view of the river and misty mountains in the distance. With no amenities to speak of, other than a rather dodgy public loo/drug administration booth, we flipped Kylie to day mode and made our way into Hamilton for breakfast. Another success! Hazel Hayes' hash browns and mackerel croquettes were amazing.
We headed from Hamilton to the Waitomo Caves to see the famous glow worms. With an hour to kill before the next group tour we shot up to the viewing platform a couple of km's away up the hill. It seems everywhere we go there are little galleries with panoramic view points. And the scenery does not disappoint. It is so varied, so vast and so very beautiful. I prefer the lush greens and rolling mountains in the north of the North Island, so fresh and vibrant and far less raggedy and scratchy than the moody, gorse covered hills that we have in the peaks and Lake District.
Our glow worm tour began with an introduction from a direct descendent of the bloke that discovered the caves on his land, although with there being over 600 direct descendants, you'd do rather well to have a tour conducted by someone who wasn't related!
Taz was very knowledgeable and clearly fond of his heritage and home. He spoke of the age of the caves and their formation all those years ago. They have names for some of the more interesting features including a stalactite that looked like a seal hanging from the ceiling and a stalagmite that looked like Spongebob. We walked through pitch black tunnels, delving further into the maze until we reached a flight of stairs that took us down into the 'cathedral', a large cavern where we were encouraged to sing Tinkle Tinkle Little Star (very badly). Limestone absorbs all echo, so the acoustics were perfect for singing.
From here we moved on to another very dark area to help adjust our eyes. Here Taz explained how the larvae eat, describing 10cm long tentacles they drop from their body, which trap unsuspecting bugs as they fly around the caves. If another larvae get too close, they will even eat each other! The reason they glow? Well this is the process of larvae digesting their catch, they cannot pass food so they digest it into energy using ATP which creates the green glow.
We walked down another fight of stairs, with zero lights and made our way precariously into a boat for our trip to see the glow worms in all their glory. With 29 of us crammed into the boat, the guide started dragging us by ropes latched across the cavern, allowing for a smooth ride. We turned the first corner and were presented with a ceiling coved in green glowing dots, looking like Van Gogh's starry night. Absolute silence was required otherwise the bugs would get scarred and turn off their colour. It was a peaceful albeit short ride, we did one loop the loop and then exited out of a side tunnel towards daylight. At this point we'll be brutally honest, we were expecting more for our money and a longer boat ride, considering the build up, but hey ho, you live and learn.
From here, we decided to change our itinerary and head straight for Turangi to save wasting time. A campsite had been located that had running showers, so we hit the road for the 3.5hr trip. We arrived at camp, it was basic but acceptable, smashed out a HIIT session whilst being thoroughly munched on by the resident mozzies, had dinner and then hit the hay.