Glowing in the Dark

After our midnight adventure, we got up early again and drove all the way from the east coast to the west coast of the northern Island to a little town called Waitomo. The town had its peak during a short gold rush era that left some old mines left for tourists (we visited them on the way).

Our hostel was very close to the local rugby field. So I could attend my very first true rugby match. It is quite fun to watch, brutal but with heaps of breaks that slow down the game. I was the only tourist in the audience so I made friends with some locals very quickly (the atmosphere is really just same same as in small football matches at home).

However, the reason why we made our way to his remote area are the world famous Glow Worm caves. They were already known by the Maori before the Europeans came and are still owned by them. The most popular way to explore the cave system is by so called “Black Water Rafting”. Everybody gets a rubber tube and you climb, swim, jump and float through the tunnels and underwater rivers. The caves are absolutely amazing. They beat everything else I have seen of that kind. The rock formations are just beautiful, better than in any movie. It rained all day, so the water stream was very strong. Sometimes you pretty much had to dive under stalactites to get further. We had to jump down waterfalls into the dark or were just floating along the river systems looking at the splendid glowing lights all around you. The whole ceiling of the caves is covered with blue/green shining glow worms. Its similar to the night sky but much brighter and somehow magical.

We spend 3h in the caves and if it wasn´t for the ice cold water I would have loved to spend a whole day exploring this unearthly world below. If you are in NZ, never, never, ever miss that experience! :D

Obviously, I couldn´t take my camera into the cave, but I strongly suggest having a look at the first two movies below. It is not even coming close to the real experience, but thats the tour that I did:

 

Black Water Rafting:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Byhz6ELqMk

Glowworms:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC41M7RPSec

Next morning we explored the area around the caves. That way you get some daylight pictures of the areal. The second and third pictures depicts the exit of the cave I went through yesterday night.

 

 

21-22.05.2016