After our time in Russell, we started our trek south. Our only deadline was that we needed to be in Nelson, on the south island, on Dec 16th to pick up our nephew who was flying in to visit for 3 weeks, woohoo!
Heading south, we stopped in Waitomo to see the Waitomo caves that are famous for being inhabited by glow worms. When you get there, you first walk into the caves and see all of the amazing stalactites (these are the ones that hang down…just think they hang on “tite” to the ceiling) and stalagmites (these are the ones that stick up…think they “mite” get higher). I can’t take credit for that, it’s straight from the tour guide!
Once you meander through the caves, you head down to the water that runs through the caves and board a small boat. In order to make sure you get the best view of the glow worms, they have to keep everything really dark, so you’re boarding these small boats in the almost pitch darkness!
The glow worms glow because they use the light to attract bugs for food. They hang a piece of silk down like a fishing line to catch the bugs that are attracted to the light. It’s sticky like a spider web. It was wild because you could look throughout the cave and just see all these glowing little lines coming down from the glow worms!
The even crazier thing is, like caterpillars, they go through the larvae and pupa stage and then take flight. However, once they transform and come out of the cocoon, they have no mouths or stomachs, so they die within a few days of transformation. Their only purpose is to mate and reproduce. So they basically shed the cocoon, mate, have some kids really fast and then kick the bucket…womp, womp, so anticlimactic! It is a sight to behold, though. They strictly say no talking and no photos/videos of any kind during the boat ride so you get the best view of the glow worms. There is something to be said for a touristy experience where everyone is silent, enjoying the moment and not taking a thousand photos. It felt almost like a religious experience where everyone was quiet, still and actually following the rules.
Since I couldn’t get any actual glow worm pictures (I’m a rule follower!), here’s a few pictures I got outside of the caves. It was a cool stop on the drive down the north island. I’d definitely never seen anything quite like it before.
The Detour Diary 