Raglan to Rotorua – The Waitomo Caves

We awoke to good weather. We took a short walk along the edge of the bay, pronounced Raglan insufficiently spectacular to consume a whole day when the weather was good, and decided to drive on to see the Waitomo caves.

The drive to the Waitomo caves took about two hours, all through lovely pastoral scenery, and all on windy, two lane roads.

We couldn’t make up our minds from the guidebooks which cave tours to do, so we went into the “i site.” Most NZ towns have a government sponsored information center with brochures, books and helpful people who know a lot about the area, but are not allowed to make recommendations.
We selected the 45 minute glowworm cave tour (the basic, everybody-does-it, tour) and a two hour walk through Ruakuri cave.

The standard 45 minute tour was fine. We saw limestone stalactites and stalagmites, and rode in a boat with a dozen other folk in the darkness under the glowworms. The guide pulls the boat slowly through the cave using ropes. The glowworms do look like stars in the night sky.

The Ruakuri walk was much better. First, there were only five of us on the tour, so we could take our time and ask questions; second, the guide reminded us a bit of our younger son who worked for a while as a whitewater rafting guide, and third, we could take pictures (which is not allowed on the basic tour).

The company that runs the Ruakuri walk apparently spent about $4.5 million on the walkways and paths. The tour begins by walking down on metal walkways that switch back and forth, descending us by about 60 feet into the earth. We walked through cracks in the limestone, along a subterranean river, saw “tomo” (deep holes in the limestone that sometimes run from the surface to the bottom-most caves), and actually got to see a glowworm up close as it began eating a fly.

As the guide said, glowworms look a lot better with the lights out. With the lights out they are small points of coldfire blue light. With the lights on they look like horizontal strands of brown snot, with delicate strands of clear mucous hanging down.
Glowworms live in caves above underground streams and rivers. Flies and other insects that feed on things in the water are attracted by the blue lights in the dark, and are ensnared in the mucous strands. When that happens the glowworm hauls up the mucous strands, bites the head off the ensnared insect, injects something to dissolve the hapless victim’s innards, and sucks the resulting muck out.

Glowworms are the larval form of a fly, and live in worm form for about nine months. When they turn into flies they live for only four days, and, since they are born in caves, are often caught and eaten by other glowworms. It doesn’t seem to be an enviable life.

NZ had large flightless birds called “moa;” they were extinct at the time of European contact. The largest stood about nine feet tall. The guide said that many moa skeletons were found in the caves at the bottoms of the tomos. The moa apparently would be walking along, not watching where they put their feet, and step into a tomo and fall down to their deaths.

We left Waitomo and drove to Rotorua, an area noted for its volcanic activity and for opportunities to see presentations on Maori culture. The drive took a couple of hours. We stopped at a town called Te Awamutu at about 4:00 pm. Most of the restaurants were closed (too late for lunch, too early for dinner) but we found a small place that served roasted meats. We had chicken and kumara, and thus fortified, drove the rest of the way to Rotorua. We found a nice motel with a spa pool; our unit had a kitchen, living area, bathroom and separate bedroom. After our nights in backpackers and on the sailboat, the space seems extravagantly excessive, but nice. The operator even presented us with a free bottle of NZ chardonnay, as well as a pint bottle of milk. Presentation of a bottle of milk seems to be customary at some NZ motels.