Glimmer . . . Glimmer - March 1

Today was fantastic! We left Rotorua and drove about 2 1/2 hours to Waitomo. We only got lost once. How can you get lost with a map and a GPS and a good sense of direction? Beats me, but it happens.

Waitomo is a really small town - really small - but it is in the center of cave country. People come to see the caves - by the busload - because of the glow worms. We went on a tour with Spellbound. Glowworm & Cave Tours  They limit their tours to 12 people - our tour had 9.  Our guide, Hohepa, drove us by van over some rough, winding roads, through some gorgeous country. It was rolling farmland with cattle and sheep. The area is chiefly limestone, so the surface is interesting, but what's under the surface is really interesting.

After a short walk we arrived at a stream where there were a few eels. We donned our official glow worm expedition helmets and followed Hohepa into the first cave.

In the cave we stayed on a walkway until we got far enough from the entrance to be in darkness.

The we turned off our headlights so we could see the first glow worms. Hohepa explained the life cycle of glow worms while our eyes adjusted to the dark and the glow worms began to get brighter.  They are amazing things. Unfortunately, it is very hard to photograph them. Here are a few photos Ken took. Most of the glow worms didn't even show up in these photos.

To see more photos. Go to Spellbound's website, glowworm.co.nz.

Most of the glow worms are on the ceiling. Some are on the walls. They have little silky threads hanging down that function like spiderwebs.

We continued further into the cave until we came to a river. There we saw so many more glow worms that it was magical. It is hard to believe that so many of them could find enough food in such a small area so deep in the cave. This is where I really wish I had a good photo.

We got into a zodiac and Hohepa pulled us along using a cable attached to the ceiling. As we quietly floated along the subterranean river I was overcome by a feeling of awe and beauty and the specialness of such a place. The estimate of 30,000 glow worms in this cave seems awfully low. There were so many glow worms that it was possible to see a little bit, even though we were now quite far into the cave. You might have trouble walking , but you could see your hands and the other people and the reflection of the glow worms on the surface of the water. We floated around for a while and I think every one would have been happy to have stayed longer.

After a short break for coffee, tea, or cocoa we proceeded to the second cave. This cave didn't have very many glow worms, but it had some wonderful stalactites.

Hohepa showed us a number of cave wetas, a type of large cricket. We also saw a number of sink holes from the inside out. In some cases we saw the bones of animals that had fallen into the sink holes.

This was a fabulous tour. I will never forget the beautiful glow worms. And I will never get that song out of my head.

After the tour, we began the 2 hours + drive back to Auckland. We almost ran out of gas. We were so far out in the middle of nowhere that we never really came to any towns. The GPS didn't work when it came to finding gas stations. Finally we found one after the little light that looks like a gas pump had been on for a while. When we were about 16 km from our destination, we hit the afternoon rush-hour traffic. We didn't think it would be too bad going. IN to town. It was worse than we expected. Much, much worse. We were delayed about 50 minutes and almost didn't get the rental car back in time.

From there it was a short cab ride to our hotel - a new Hilton on a wharf next to the cruise ship wharf. We have a nice balcony outside of our room and we are able to look across the water and see the Diamond Princess. We will be boarding her tomorrow!