Waitomo Caves

  Waitomo Caves, New Zealand
Sunday, December 2, 2007

landscape

The drive to Waitomo was spectacular.  At first the scenery was pretty blah, but once we got out of the city everything just opened up into rolling farmland.  You can see for miles (or kilometers here, I suppose) fields of cows and sheep, with a background of mountains.  Chris was just awed by the landscape.  We definitely understand now why everyone makes such a big deal out of the sheep here.  Because they just dot the landscape like little white cotton balls. 

Tumu Tumu Toobing

We embarked on a 4 hour blackwater caving trip in Waitomo.  The Waitomo Caves are home to the famous New Zealand glowworms, really the maggot of a fly that uses glowing excrement to capture their prey.  And here we noticed another difference from the States - even though the caves are a major tourist attraction, it didn't seem as commercialized as everything in the U.S. is.  The farmers actually own the land, so the caving companies just lease the rights to the caves beneath.  We donned wetsuits, then took a short hike through a pasture full of bleating (and eating and pooping) sheep to get to the cave entrance, which in reality was just a vey tight hole in the ground with a ladder descending into the black. 

Caving Chris

Caving Vicki

Most of the tour was spent walking, crawling, and wading through stalagtites and stalagmites, really amazing geology.  Picture rocks jutting out of the ground at impossibly sharp, knifelike angles and trying to climb over them in water filled boots without hurting yourself.  We also had a wonderful float in the middle, where the only light came from the glowworms overhead, which looks a lot like stars in the night sky.  In the quiet of a cave, it is awe-inspiring.

Glad to be above ground again

That awe, however, was quickly erased during the "cold" section of the cave - where we had to dive in and swim a short section in 13 degrees C (55 degrees F) water.  You could feel every single leak in the wetsuit.  And it was cold enough to literally take your breath away.    By the end, I had never been so happy to see daylight and a hot shower.  But it was well worth the trip.  Unfortunately, we were not allowed to bring cameras into the cave so we don't have any photos of the amazing glowworms.  Not that a mere photograph would do it justice anyway.

From Waitomo we drove on to Rotorua, through literally the middle of nowhere.  The biggest town we saw consisted of 2 dozen homes along one road with a convienence store.  This is definitely New Zealand farm country, with beautiful scenery straight out of Lord of the Rings.  In fact, the place where they filmed Hobbiton wasn't too far away.
 
Stay tuned for Rotorua... which Chris has affectionately dubbed "The Smelliest City in the World."