Day 12
Summary: Rented car, drove to Waitomo and saw glowworm caves, drove to Turangi
Monday, January 13th
What we didn’t expect when flying from Australia to New Zealand was such a big time change! New Zealand is 3 hours ahead of Queensland during daylight savings time. I didn’t think there would be that many time zones between Australia and New Zealand, but they are not the same time! We didn’t feel major jet lag, but we did feel like we could have slept just a bit longer for the first few nights. And since I didn’t account for the time change, we jumped right in to adventures the first day without time to rest. Oh well! We made it work.
In the morning, we took the free hotel shuttle back to the airport to catch another shuttle to the car rental place. We got our car and drove 2.5 hours to Waitomo for a tour of the glowworm caves! I remember pinning a picture of glowworm caves back in the early days of Pinterest and I was finally going to see them with my own eyes!
First, we ate lunch at a the Morepork Pizzeria & Cafe. Our margherita pizza had fun purple basil on top!
I had purchased tickets for two tours, which is listed as their “most popular combo” on their website. It included a 45 minute tour of the main cave with a little boat ride and then a 1.5 hour tour through a second cave where you were allowed to take pictures. I would recommend both! They also offer rafting/tubing through the cave systems but that didn’t appeal to me being that the caves and water are cold and pitch black. It just made me uneasy.
The first cavern was very busy with lots of tourists and it felt a little crowded and rushed. Our guide explained that the caves were first explored in 1887 by the local Maori Chief Tane Tinorau accompanied by an English surveyor named Fred Mace. I can’t imagine entering a cave and seeing thousands of tiny glowing blue dots. I would have thought I entered another dimension and was looking at the night sky!
In 1889, the chief and his wife Huti started escorting tourists into the cave for a small fee. In 1906, the government took over administration of the cave for almost 100 years. Then, in 1989, the land and the caves were returned to the descendants of the original owners. Many of the staff are direct descendants of Chief Tane himself.
There is no photography of the glowworms allowed in the Waitomo cave, but let me tell you, it was amazing! After touring the regular cave formations, they lead you to the boats. That part of the cave is kept dark and quiet because the glowworms will stop glowing if it’s too bright or noisy. Silently, a guide will help you into a rowboat and then use a system of overhead ropes to pull the boat along the water. All the while, the ceiling is covered in shining glowworms! Greg said he cried a little because of the beauty. I felt like we were transcending time. The silently floating boat gave a feeling of weightlessness, and the pitch black of the cave studded with neon blue light made the space seem endless. I felt a mix of not wanting it to end, knowing it will, and not being able to tell how long it had been! It was spectacular and we were grateful that the other tourists in our boat upheld the same reverence and everyone was silent. It makes the experience better for everyone!
This is a photo of us at the cave exit.
For the second tour, we drove down the road just a bit to Ruakuri Cave.
This cave was discovered 400-500 years ago by a young Maori hunter who was attacked by wild dogs. The dogs stole the hunter’s birds and fled to the cave in which they lived. The cave entrance was later used as a burial ground. To protect that sacred area, there is a new entrance to the cave – a giant concrete spiral staircase.
Photos of the glowworms is allowed in the Ruakuri cave, which was fun even though it’s difficult to capture with such low light without a tripod.
The glowworms are actually fungus gnats in the larval stage. The larvae use their bioluminescence to attract prey into their silky threads that hang down below them, which they cover in sticky droplets. In the darkness, all you see is blue dots, but when light shines on them, you can see their sticky webs!
Like most caves, it was chilly, so we wore some layers. At one point in the tour, our guide shut the lights off and led us through a passage of the cave in complete darkness. We followed him by forming a train, grabbing a hold of the shoulders of the person in front of you. It was really cool to slowly walk along and see the glowworms shining so brightly.
We finished the tour around 5:30pm and drove 2 hours to our Airbnb in Turangi. Along the way, we saw the first thousand of the millions of sheep we would see throughout our stay in New Zealand. They are so cute; we love sheep!
Even though it was rainy, we could still enjoy the beautiful landscape. Farms, mountains, and forest: our ideal mix.
Once in Turangi, we got the key to our Airbnb which was a nicely refinished room in a family’s basement. It had its own private entrance, a little patio, and the bathroom even had heated light bulbs! It was very private and we weren’t disturbed by the family at all. We ate dinner at Monsoon Indian Cuisine and I had my go-to: malai kofta. So good!
We came back to the Airbnb and packed our bags for our hike the next day!
Thanks for reading!
-Rebecca
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