and now, back to the caves

I feel that we need to do a more thorough review of the Waitomo caves, after all we did spend the whole day there and experienced 3 tours. The day started like any other saturday...ok well most saturdays sees the parents lazing in bed until 9-9:30, so the day started like any other saturday up until 7:30. Then a peculiar thing happened..the alarm went off! So up we got and after a hearty breakfast, we loaded into the car for the 2 hour+ drive to the west side of the north island. The benefits to coming from a vast country like Canada is the fact that we don't think that a 2 hour drive is long. So 4 hours round trip in a day is a piece of cake especially if there are magnificent caves a one end.

We had planned the route on google maps prior to departing, nary a wrong turn on the trip out, and we arrived shortly after 10am. We had a coupon for %50 off of the admission price so doing three tours ended up be about $130nzd for all 4 of us.

Our first tour was the driest cave and was all done in about 40 minutes.

Our second tour was much longer and darker, so that we could see the glow maggots! well they are maggots, and the live on the roof of the caves. Producing a bioluminescense to attract other insects into the sticky thread dangling below it. They figured glow worm sounded better than glow maggot, marketing strikes again!
Not many pictures hear because the don't allow them, it distubs the maggots don't you know. This cave however had a very cool entrance. you enter into a dark chamber that is very large, you can tell right away because of the echoes. so we file in along a railing and the guide hits a button that slowly illuminates the levels that we are going to descend along the winding ramp upon which we are standing. Once we make our way to the bottom there is a door into the caves, the concrete walkway we came down was added because they actually had to build this entrance to the cave, due to the original entrance being a sacred burial place for the maori.

Our third tour was not as thrilling by now for the walking part of it, but I am glad we did it last because the short boat ride at the end was worth it. You are led down a dark set of stairs and into a squarish metal boat. The guide has made a point of telling us several times that this part of the trip is to be silent, no talking...it was good she did that because there were some rather obnoxious people who thought rules didn't apply to them and talked the whole tour. Well any way we got on the boat for the first of two trips she would have to make and let me tell you the sight was magical. It was like looking at the milky way on the darkest night, but there was an added mystical feeling with the quiet cave and the soft lapping and dripping of the water. It is a must do if you ever get a chance.

Well that about covers the caves.

ttfn