Going Underground

Escaping Hobbiton, and not, as far as we know, pursued by any Black Riders our journey took us west. By chance we passed the Hobbiton film set but as the admission charge was $75 each (for a short tour of a film set) we carried on driving through rolling hills and small country towns. Around late morning we arrived at Waitomo...an area of caves and glow worms. There are several companies offering cave tours in the Waitomo area. We opted to go with a company called Spellbound, largely because the reviews on TripAdvisor were very good and they took you to caves used in the filming of Planet Earth. If they were good enough for Sir David Attenborough we thought they would be good enough for us! We booked on a half day tour starting at 2.00 pm so that gave us time to do the Ruakuki bush walk. This spectacular loop track took us through forest, under giant ferns and through natural rock tunnels and to a giant cave opening. This whole area is limestone country and their are 100s of caves, holes (called tomos) and underground rivers.

At 2.00 pm we reported for our cave tour and met our guide, Norm (only his Mum calls him Norman). Norm was a terrific guide, he knew everything about Waitomo (population 41) and had personally explored many of the cave systems in the area. He even knew how many dairy cattle each farm had and shared with us the fact that maize was a popular crop...and also used locally to strengthen marijuana!

Our group was 5 in number and Norm chatted away as he drove us on an unsealed road up into the hills. It was clear he had an intimate understanding of the landscape both above and below ground. After leaving public roads our transit van bumped its way up and down rough tracks arriving in green fields, surrounded by limestone outcrops.

We eventually left our van, walked down a track and put on our helmets and headlamps. Norm guided us into a cave entrance. The light quickly receded. After 20 metres Norm asked us to turn off our headlamps. The darkness was total. After turning them back on again we were guided through a large cave system with an underground river flowing beside us. After a while we started to see pinpricks of light on the roof of the cave and thin filaments of silk like thread.  This was our first sight of glow worms. We could take photos but capturing this wasn't easy with so little light. The photo that follows is a best effort at capturing what we saw. 

Norm explained about the glow worm life cycle (they are actually the larvae of a mosquito like insect) and then led us on deeper into the cave. After walking for a little while we came to an underground river. Norm asked us to get into a small rubber dinghy, extinguish our head lamps,  switch off our cameras and stay silent. 

He proceeded to move us very slowly along the river. The only light was provided by hundreds of thousands of glow worms above our heads.  It was like looking at the densest star field you could imagine. As our eyes adjusted to the light it was possible to make out the shapes of the cave formations and the light from the glow worms created a dappling effect on the water as though light were penetrating a deep forest canopy. Our trip along the river ended near a waterfall before we turned around and in complete silence headed back. Time was hard to judge, but I'm guessing we were on the river for 20 minutes. Norm explained there were 7 kilometres of the cave so we were only seeing a tiny part! After leading us back to the cave entrance Norm made us all a cuppa,  offered biscuits and when we were suitably revived he took us off to another dry cave. This cave didn't have many glow worms but did have wonderful stalagmite and stalactite formations and the bones of a now extinct Moa - a giant bird that once inhabited New Zealand but was hunted to extinction by the Maori.  This unfortunate specimen was around 20,000 years old.

Our time with Norm ended all too quickly and we had experienced something rather special. It seemed appropriate to head to the only bar in town (Waitomo's only pub burnt down a few years ago) and celebrate the end of a magical day. The fact they had a micro brewery and a very acceptable pale ale was even better. Mrs B. even got a free cider on the house!