The Waitomo Caves

I remember when I was young, we had glow in the dark stars stuck to the ceiling to mimick the night sky. Simply a bit of phosphorescence, and I was transported to another realm. This was the same feeling that struck me as I looked up in a cave and saw… stars. Except they were actually bioluminescent bugs.

The Glow Worm caves are a big attraction here, and though we have explored caves before, we felt this was one spot we couldn’t miss.

The cave tour started at a synthetic cave entrance. A funny thing, really: they tried to make the cement look like sandstone.
We entered the ground through a giant sliding metal door. The temperature started to drop. In the darkness, yellow and white lights appeared in a giant spiral.

The beginning of the tour talked about cave formations as we went deeper into the Earth. Stalactites, stalagmites, cave curtains, you know the drill. Along the sides of the walkway, there were sensors that beeped aggressively when you got too close to the formations. Our guide joked that ninjas would drop down from the ceiling if it happened more than three times. Honestly, I wasn’t paying too much attention to the beginning. Before long, we arrived at what I really wanted to see.

The cave opened into a chamber, and above us there were bright teal stars. Of course, it wasn’t the night sky we were seeing but glow worms. They are very difficult to photograph without fancy equipment. They are way, way brighter than this, and there are far more of them. If you’re curious, I highly recommend looking up better photos online. They are truly incredible.

We learned that glow worms are actually glow maggots. They are usually above running water in caves because they feed off of insects. The insects fly up to their bioluminescent light and get caught in their dangling strings.

These strings are made of mostly mucus. Gross. The mystique of glow worms was destroyed a little, but I am still fascinated by their strange glowing lives. I could have spent hours in that room. However, the tour continued. The next big room we went into was dubbed simply “the pretty room.”

So many cool formations!

My favorite was seeing the reflections in the pool. Yes, there’s a pool there.

The cave we were in, Ruakuri, was named as such from a Maori story. It translates to the cave of two dogs. There is a part of the cave that is sacred: it is a burial site. Tours do not go in that area any more. The cave itself was privately owned for years before being seized by the government. Eventually it was restored to the original owner who much later agreed to private tours if they took care of the cave and kept everything in good condition. He had put up this sign to ward off the curious, and it still stands.