Brian & Kristynn: Adventures in Middle Earth: Trip with Mom & Dad: Day 7

January 2, 2014

Today we embarked on the second leg of our trip and flew up to New Zealand's North island. Our first stop after landing in Auckland and picking up the rental car was to drive into the Waikato region to visit the famous Waitomo Caves. We saw two of the three caves while we were there: Waitomo Glowworm Cave and Aranui Cave.

Now in case you don't know about glow worms, the glow worm, Arachnocampa luminosa, is unique to New Zealand. Thousands of these tiny creatures radiate an unmistakable luminescent light in the darkness of the cave and it looks like you are outside sitting beneath a starry night. It's incredible. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the glow worm cave, so I have posted some images from the internet so you can see what I am talking about. This is something I really suggest seeing in person if you ever have the chance.

This first picture is what the glow worms looked like when the lights were turned out. The cave was made by an underground river that has cut through the mountain, so we boarded boats and were guided through this portion of the cope by a tour guide in absolute darkness. It was amazing!

In this picture, you can see the threads that the glow worms spin to catch their food, called "fishing lines". Each glow worm has about 30 fishing lines dangling from their bodies and they catch insects such as mosquitos, flies and sand flies. I was glad to hear that something is eating these crazy sand flies!

Now for the pictures that we took. This first one is of Mom and me waiting in line to get in. As you can imagine, because the caves are pretty deep, bringing a lot of tourists through results in a lot of carbon dioxide being released into the air. Because the air flow is low, the park rangers have to monitor the level of carbon dioxide to make sure it doesn't get to dangerous levels. This very thing happened just after we got in line to go through the tour and they shut it down for a while to let the levels drop. Lucky for us, a lot of people didn't want to wait and after only about 15 minutes they reopened the cave and we got right through.

The last picture at the glow worm cave is as we were leaving the cave after disembarking from the boat. As I said, the tour was incredible!

In addition to the Waitomo Glowworm Cave, we also walked through nearby Aranui Cave. This is the only cave in this region that was not made from a subterranean river. This cave was actually formed from shifts in the ground which caused the rock to split apart. Now, with the water that seeps into the ground, and over thousands of years, the cave is completely full of stalactites and stalagmites.

Here is what the locals have to say about this cave:

The massed delicacy of the millions of stalactites in Aranui Cave is probably without equal in the world. The cave was formed on an earthquake fault, which means the rain water that creates the limestone crystals enters more readily. As a result, almost every corner of the roof and walls is adorned with fragile, sparkling forms in pale brown, pink and white. There is very little of the ceiling that has not been decorated by the dripping water.

Over the years the guides have given many of the limestone clusters affectionate nicknames, which help to bring the cave to life. The entrance to the cave, for example, is known as the butchers shop, because the formations (with a little imagination look like sides of beef and a sheep hanging from the ceiling). Further in, narrow chambers reveal carrots, cauliflower, cheese and a parsnip, as well as Snow White who is accompanied by a few more than her original seven dwarves!

We had a lovely walk up to the cave where we learned about some of the local plantlife. Mom is standing next to a silver fern, which is a symbol of New Zealand. I guess I didn't zoom in as much as I thought but you can still sort of tell the silver coloring on the fern leaves.

I can't remember this plant name, but it is apparently used to remedy all sorts of illnesses because they contain something that numbs in them. In order to be effective, you have to wait for the leaves to be mature. The way you tell if they are ready is how much the insects and animals have eaten the leaves. You only want to use leaves that are riddled with holes. Isn't that crazy?

Once we got into the cave, we saw a bunch of interesting shaped stalactites/stalgmites. This first one to the left of me and Dad is called Jabba the Hut. You can sort of see it...right?

These stalactites are like flutes or straws, they are hollow in the middle. Sadly, you can see that all of these have been broken off. We learned from our tour guide that 100 years ago when it wasn't really feasible to take pictures when you toured through the cave that tourists were encouraged to break off a piece of a stalactite and take it home as a souvenir to generate more interest in touring New Zealand worldwide. They didn't realize at the time that it takes about 100 years to grow one centimeter. Oops!

They had a piece of the limestone for us to hold so that we could see how heavy these formations were.

This is us leaving the cave. It would be pretty easy to miss if you didn't know it was there!

Here are some additional pictures of the stalactites and stalagmites that have made some interesting formations (along with their nicknames) for your viewing pleasure :)