Ok, now, on to other things... :) Today was a pretty cool day. We woke up around 8 am (always nice to wake up before the alarm) and quickly saw that it had rained last night. Ruh roh for all our clothes out on the line. We gathered everything and tossed it in the dryer, hoping to have clean and dry clothes by the time we needed to leave for our excursion. Next up was breakfast and getting the van packed up to head to the caves! Fortunately our clothes dried with plenty of time and we were able to head out to our first stop - Waitomo Glowworm cave!
The Wiatomo area is well known for its cave systems which began developing roughly TWENTY-FOUR MILLION YEARS AGO. The caves are made mostly of limestone, and consist primarily of fossils and Calcium Carbonate. They have been created and altered over time through earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, fault changes (when tectonic plates shift) and by water as several, including the Glowworm Cave, have rivers running through them. In addition, the caves have TONS of stalactites (hanging from the ceiling) and stalagmites (rising from the ground) which make up their interiors. These features grow SO SLOWLY that it is estimated that it takes about 100 years to form 1 cubic centimeter of stalactite!!
There are many different caves you can explore, although the Glowworm Cave is definitely the most popular in the area. The Glowworm Cave has been made famous by the abundance of Arachnocampa Luminosa (the Glowworm species) that live there. We're talking TENS OF THOUSANDS of these glowworms, which produce a very tiny, but bright blue light, which helps them to attract their prey.
Information courtesy of Waitomo Glowworm Caves
These insects need a very special habitat to survive - it must be humid, dark, and sheltered, making caves (and in particular, caves with a river) their perfect dwelling.
We arrived at the Glowworm cave around 9:45 for our 10 am tour. The tour, which lasted about 45 minutes, was very informative, telling us all about the caves, the local Maori tribes' connections to the caves, and information on the type of glowworms in the cave (see the picture above for information on them!) We wandered through the cave with our guide, seeing all the beautiful limestone formations and going deeper and deeper into the heart of the cave as it got darker and darker. As we walked, the guide would turn on some lights in the cave, pointing out features of the glowworms (such as the sticky line traps they use to catch food), before turning off the lights so we could see the glowworms in all their glory. Towards the end of the tour, we hopped into a small rowboat (fit for about 15 people) and, in complete darkness, our guide pulled us along the river via ropes as we watched the ceiling turn into a mass of blue sparkling dots. It was like nothing we had ever experienced before - just absolutely breathtaking.
While I wasn't able to take any pictures inside the cave, there are a few images available on Google...
Photo courtesy of Google. And yes. It was actually this stunning.
Honestly, no picture could ever do it justice. Just imagine being in the pitch black and looking up and just seeing THOUSANDS of bright blue twinkling stars.
And it was better than that.
The boat ride ended at the entrance to the cave...
Where we headed off towards our next cave destination - Ruakuri!
Ruakuri Cave is nice because it has a little taste of everything - it has also been cut through by a river, meaning that it also has the perfect conditions for glowworms. In addition, it has incredible glowworm formations, and underwater waterfalls. The guided tour of this cave, which is MUCH larger than the Glowworm Cave, is nearly 2 hours long. It begins with visitors walking down a looonnnngggg winding path below the ground about 100 feet. This path, which is man-made, leads to a central corridor which is closed off to the outside world and the cave. The park rangers use this corridor to make sure the cave, which has had to adjust to the influx of tourists which have been coming in recent years, always maintains the correct homeostasis to ensure that it lasts a long long time. This entrance is also the only man-made portion of the cave. A few decades ago, the Maori that own the land the cave is on declared the original opening a sacred space, and now it is no longer open to the public, but is used for Maori ceremonies.
The Ruakuri Cave was beautiful and SO MUCH bigger than the first cave. It had so much to offer and we loved exploring its different features!
After our tour of Ruakuri we had about two hours before our last tour. During this time, we went to the information center, where they have a small museum on the cave systems, to learn more about the area and to soak up some free wi-fi :). We stayed there for a while before heading to the entrance to the Aranui Cave to eat lunch in the area before our last tour.
We entered Aranui Cave and I immediately discovered what I had been slightly afraid of seeing here... Cave Weta. YUCK.
Weta are the largest insects in the world. They look somewhat like crickets but can grow to be about 6-8 inches long. WAY TOO BIG FOR A BUG LIKE THAT!!! There are two kinds - Bush Weta, which we have yet to see, and Cave Weta. Within being in the cave for about 12 seconds I found one on the wall.
Picture courtesy of Google Search. I didn't take pictures of Cave Weta on my phone. That's not my jam.
IT WAS SO MASSIVE!! I COULDN'T HANDLE IT!! At least I wasn't the only one - pretty much everyone seemed kinda freaked out at the sight of them!! After the discovery, we were happy to hear from our guide that the Weta really only stay in the first 10 feet or so of the cave, because they need to have the ability to leave it to hunt for food. Well, gee, that makes me feel better...those giant things need to be able to LEAVE the cave to go find their prey. Awesome. Regardless, we were glad we wouldn't find them as we went deeper into Aranui!
The Aranui Cave is known for having the prettiest formations, and it did not disappoint. While much smaller than the Ruakuri, the formations were breathtaking and some of them were SO BIG!
The cave was seriously beautiful and we enjoyed wandered around, taking pictures of all its gorgeous features.
After leaving the astonishingly beautiful caves we got an equally astonishing surprise - a phone call from our buddy, Morgan, at Jucy. Turns out all our complaining/back and forth/receipt hoarding paid off - Morgan said that Jucy is going to refund us for TWO FULL DAYS of our trip because of our broken down van!!! AND they are going to reimburse us for ALL meals paid for during that time! We couldn't believe it!! I must say - I have been BEYOND pissed at the van breaking down, losing a day, spending time in Palmerston North, etc. etc. etc., but I am SUPER grateful to Morgan for all his hard work in helping to provide us with this (sizable) refund! Morgan - you are my favorite human of the day!! THANK YOU THANK YOU!!
After leaving the caves we took a look at our handy dandy map to figure out what our next course of action should be. Somehow we ended up being about 2 days ahead of Jon's original schedule (yes, even despite the breakdown - that's what happens when you discover Wellington isn't your favorite city...), meaning we have plenty of time to explore another area of the North Island, as long as it's a bit closer to Auckland. After discussing our options (and then me basically telling Jon where we were going...) we decided it's time to head to the Bay of Islands! The Bay of Islands are in the Northland and are the top vacation spot of Kiwis because of their beautiful (mostly) year-round weather. Since it had been so chilly in the mountains the past few days, we decided it would be nice to be able to head to the northern beaches and so the Bay of Islands it is!
For tonight, we thought 4 1/2 hours was enough driving, so we stopped in Whangarei, the largest city in Northland for the night, and found a place to stay right along the highway at the information center. We made dinner, showered, and are enjoying a relaxing evening after quite a long day!
Tomorrow - time to explore Whangarei and head to the Bay of Islands!!
Jess' highlight of the day: the Glowworm Cave!
Jon's highlight of the day: Ruakura Cave
No comments:
Post a Comment