Waitomo Glow worm Caves

It was heavily raining and really demotivating weather, when we arrived in Waitomo. First thing to do, was to find an accommodation. And we found something surprisingly genius! It was a cheap house with four rooms, with heating blankets -that was like 1000 plus points- a clean kitchen – also rare to find –  and a cozy living room with free DVDs. But the best thing was that the owner of this cute house also owns some caves and we could directly book a cave tour for the next day. Actually, I had wanted a different tour: one of the big ones, in the big, famous caves and where you will stay dry. But our guide offered them a lot cheaper and with glow-worm sightings, black water tubing and abseiling. That was a way better offer for a way better price. This night we chilled inside, while the weather outside seemed like the end of the world. It was the first evening since long that we could cook a real meal: Steak, oven salt potatoes and a big salad. We felt as we had arrived in paradise and ended our day with two nice flatmates watching TV with hot tea.

The next day at 10 o’clock in the morning and best weather, we started our little adventure. The group consisted of our guide, the two of us, three other German guys and a south American guy. I was the only girl and about more than one head shorter than all of them and felt a bit unfit in this group. But everyone was very nice and we had a lot of fun. The guide drove us to the caves and gave us wetsuits, gum boots and climbing equipment. We all looked like the seven dwarfs, heading to their cave. First, we had some theoretical instructions: Never take off your helmet, because you don’t see where you go, never let go of your tube, you will never find it again and will have to swim the way, where the others tube, learn how to use your flashlight at the helmet and learn how to abseil. We did some exercises for the abseiling and then started the whole thing. I was the last one, except the guide, to abseil the 30 metres into the dark cave, it did cost me some courage.

Everyone got a tube and we followed our guide against the river stream within the cave. Sometimes it was only as high as my ankles, sometimes up to the boots and sometimes even higher and all the cold water splashed into our boots. The water was pretty cold and I was happy that the hike was taking some energy to stay warm. After some time, we found a good place to leave our tubes, sit down and switch off our flashlights. We were all astonished to see the glowing of the glow-worms on the ceiling. It seemed like many little stars in the sky as the surrounding of the cave was pitch-black. It really felt, let’s say, astronomic. These glow worms are not real glow worms as we know them. These are the larvae of flies, glowing to attract their victims. The guide told us that if they notice potential food around, like flies or other insects, they would glow even more and we should try to achieve it. What do you do if you want to imitate flies? You hum. So, the six of us started to hum, nothing happened and the guide said, he would do it. It made a loud bang and the glow worms started to glow at the double brightness! The vibration coming from the guides tube slapping on the water, made the worms think there are flied nearby. It was really fascinating.

When we switched on the lights again, we couldn’t see them anymore and continued our way back down the river. Some parts, the guide would go ahead and await us at another point and we could follow him on our tubes, one by one. I was always busy to keep my feet in the front and being able to see the way, but somehow my tube always turned me backwards. Some parts, we still had to walk, because it was not possible to raft here. We had to pass some very narrow paths, in one of them, I had the water up to my head and was walking, looking up to the ceiling, because it was too narrow to swim. The current of the river was at some places very strong and sometimes I was really afraid of getting lost. But the guide seemed to like me as he always let the boys go in the front, into the deep water and the strong currents and held me back: “Nadine, come here, here it’s not so deep”, “Nadine, follow me, here the current is not so strong”, which was a little better. But at one point, we had to cross the stream, I walked, with the water as high as my shoulders, did one more step and completely sank under water. The current was tearing strong away from the others and the guide held out his hand to get me out, alone I would just have drifted away. It was a very exhausting hike and we made a small pause on a rock. The guide gave us hot orange juice and chocolate bars, which was the perfect thing for regaining energy and heating up! After some minutes resting and taking pictures, we headed back. I was so happy, that the guide only mentioned in the end, that eels were living in this under earth river. If I would have known that before, I would have felt the urge to always look around to not touch one of them, even if I know, they also avoid people. The last thing, was to climb 25 metres up and then finally get rid of the cold and wet clothes. At home, we got a hot soup, hot shower, hot tea and the pictures of this really amazing tour. I am happy, that I had this opportunity, because now, I know it was a special trip. I can very much recommend the tour and also the hostel.

Completely exhausted and still freezing, we were chilling for the rest of the day and very thankful for the electric heating blankets.

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