Glowing in the Dark at Waitomo

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After a few days in Auckland I'd had enough of the city (everyone else seems to love it here but for me the best thing about it was buying my bus ticket out...) and was keen to get back to some smaller places. And you can't really get too much smaller than Waitomo... from what I saw in my two days there, Waitomo has a hotel, a couple of backpacker places, a small store, a bar, a tourist info place and that's more or less it. The main reason people come here is to see the caves and glow worms. And in true NZ style there are all sorts of ways to seem them - the action adventure route (blackwater rafting in oversized tyres, canyoning, etc) and the less adventurous tours where you gently float through the caves on a raft and walk through the caves. Given the recent cold weather and rain I, ermmm, wimped out and went for the gentle but warm option. ;0) Maybe next time for the rafting.. I think I'm going to be saying that a lot!

So glow worms.... a rather misleading name as they're not worms at all but little insects that 'glow' to attract their dinner.... other insects. The caves themselves were very cave like - the usual stalactites and stalagmites in abundance interspersed with the occasional remains of animals that had fallen down from above. It's thought that one set of bones may be that of the now exctint Moa (large flightless bird hunted into extinction @ 1500's). Ending the day by floating through the glow worm cave in the dark was rather magical and very chilled out - its like looking up at the stars on a clear night except the 'stars' are a pale green colour..... the aliends are coming....

After a long sunny day walking around the local countryside it's back on the bus to Rotorua.

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