03 December 2006

NZ - Waitomo Glow Worms & Caving

After a full day of hot springs and Maori culture, we set off for yet another picturesque drive and arrived in Waitomo in the afternoon. We immediately visited the glow worm caves, a major attraction of this area. While the 1 hour tour was quite 'toursity' we still enjoyed the information shared by the apathetic guide and of course, the viewing of the glow worms via row boat in the cave. It was as if we were viewing stars in the sky, dozens of constellations all above us within the caves. These stars were the worms glowing in the dark (they reminded us of lightning bugs). A quick explanation of glow worms: these worms are fly larvae that have just a mouth to feed but no means of expelling their waste (no anus). They process their waste by a chemical reaction within their body..this reaction creates a florescent glow...neat, eh? They produce thin stringy hair like webs to catch and eat curious insects that are attracted to the glow.

Our real adventure and one of our most memorable, was experienced the next day where we spent the day in the dark with 1 other adventurous couple from NZ and a certified canyoneering guide crawling through an extensive Waitomo cave, abseiling down water falls, wading through waste deep water, bouldering and climbing through holes just big enough for us to crawl through on our bellies or backs while partially submerged in water. Thank goodness they armed us with 2 layers of thermals, a caving outer layer, boots, helmets and head lamps.....it was cold and muddy but we were prepared! Amidst the adventure, we saw some glow worms and incredible stalactite formations. The main focus, however, was to give us a true experience of the sport of canyoneering itself without a hand holding approach.

When we had reached the furthest point of the cave, 2 plus hours into our expedition of predominantly climbing (the high road) we were tasked to work as a team to find our way back out following the river path (the low road); our guide shadowed us but became our silent and invisible guide. Our team worked incredibly well and we had the best time.....we're ready to explore more caves and have heard of quite a few in Northern CA ;)

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2 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

OMG! These NZ blog entries read just like my journal entries. i'm so glad you guys did the hardcore waitomo caving expedition - that was my favorite NZ memory. :)

1/26/2007 10:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sounds like you'll both be old hats at crawling around that li'l ole hill come Wayna Picchu and your Andean adventures!

1/31/2007 3:11 PM  

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