Glow worm caves

---

Tuesday December 29 – This morning I called and booked a campsite for the night as well as a tour for each of us at Waitomo, an area with several large caves that have glowworms. I wanted to do the black water rafting tour and Jeroen didn’t, and we were lucky to each get the last place on a different tour that started around the same time of day. We drove to the holiday park, checked in, and then went to collect our tickets at the info site we booked from over the phone. After lunch he drove to his tour and I got picked up for mine. His was a walking tour in the Ruakari cave, and mine involved a wetsuit and an inner tube. I had to walk through the cave and jump into my tube, backwards, down a couple of small waterfalls. Both tours involved seeing glowworms, which are the larval form of a cave fly. They spend 9-11 months in the caves as larvae feeding by attracting prey with their bioluminescence, then about 2-3 days as adults. My tour did not allow me to bring a camera, but Jeroen was able to get a few. My tour ended with a hot shower and soup and a bagel…nice, since the water was freezing.

---