Day 11 – A Galaxy Below

titiwai  

1. (noun) glowworm, Arachnocampa luminosa, adult fly of the glowworm. Translates to “lights reflected in water”.

This morning we had a pretty long and early drive out to Waitomo, so after fueling up with a Micky D’s stop (the sausage muffins were specifically recommended to us to experience the beef – I agree, it’s pretty top), we were on the road.

With no pit stops, we arrived for our 10am tour a little early, so we checked in and headed to the start of our first walk and waited for our guide listening to the cacophony of birds in the rainforest. 

Once 10 o’clock came around, we met our guide Wi, and we walked into the mouth of the Ruakuri Cave. According to Maori legend, Ruakuri Cave (rua meaning den, and kuri meaning dog) was first discovered 400-500 years ago by a young Maori hunting for birds. He was attacked by wild dogs just outside the original cave entrance. Tane Tinorau, Chief of Kawhia, had crossed the country with a war party to attack the local Ngati Hau Tribe and gain land in the Waitomo area. A hunter was sent to spear birds for food and he discovered the entrance to the cave which was occupied by a number of wild dogs. The wild dogs attacked the hunter who dropped his catch and fled. Later, traps were set by the war party to capture the dogs and they were killed and eaten. Shortly afterwards on success of his attack Tane Tinorau took his people to live near the cave. The cave entrance was used by Maori as a burial ground (wahi tapu) and it is this sacred area that has now been protected with the construction of the spiral entrance a safe distance away. What I have found interesting touring around Aotearoa (New Zealand), specifically Rotorua, is that anything to do with Maori culture is family run, with most, if not all employees being related by blood. Our guide Wi is directly related to that chief, and working within this cave so closely to that sacred space where ancestors were laid to rest is so special.

Out of the two tours we had today, Ruakuri Cave was the only one that permitted photography. The cave is made from limestone, which is similar to caves I have visited back home, so these images might feel familiar in some places, but what I found so cool about this particular cave is that since the protection of this cave was taken so seriously when it was open to the public, other than a small amount of discolouration from the oil of human hands, and a few stalactites missing their points from humans breaking them off for souvenirs, this cave is in pretty perfect condition. The Limestone is so bright! This was also our first real look at glow worms! This was pretty magical, but looking back I can say it had nothing on what our next tour had to show us.

Once our tour with Wi was over and we had reemerged from the depths, up the 50m spiral, Drew and I went hunting for a snack before we needed to get to the start spot for our second tour. It wasn’t too long though until we were ready and heading off with our new guide Steven, and heading back into the darkness, this time into the Waitomo Glow Worm Cave. The caves were first explored in 1887 by local Maori Chief Tane Tinorau accompanied by an English surveyor Fred Mace.

Local Maori people knew of the cave, but the caverns had never been extensively explored until Fred and Tane went to investigate. They built a raft of flax stems and with candles as their only lighting, floated into the cave where the stream goes underground. Steven led us through first to the Cathedral Room, which is the largest cavern in the cave. This room was absolutely beautiful, with 15m high ceilings and gorgeous stalactites and stalagmites adoring every surface. We were next taken downstairs into a corner of the cave that is very dark, with the walkway to the right, and on the left a low section of ceiling. We were given instructions to bob down and look underneath. The second my line of sight was under that ridge, I saw thousands of glowing blue speckles twinkling in the darkness! A light was briefly switched onto this area once we were all bobbed down engrossed in the luminescence, and that was when we were able to see the delicate silk strings hanging from each light. This is how the glow worms hunt, lowering sticky silk strings down below them, tricking smaller insects into their trap with their light, making them believe they’re heading to the surface. They would then reel these strings in, eat their prey, reset their trap and then do it all again. This was a stunning sight that I found difficult to walk away from. 

When we were down in this darkened area, the tour group behind us had made it to the Cathedral Room, and we suddenly heard their guide start to sing. She was singing a traditional Maori song that Steven quietly joined in on, but it was her voice bouncing off the walls in the huge chamber that brought me to tears. It was absolutely unforgettable, and still gives me goosebumps while typing this out.

The last part of this tour was travelling down to the Glowworm Grotto. We were led down deeper until we were at the level of the river towards a boat that was waiting for us. Once we were all aboard, we were asked to be silent and just enjoy the moment when we were led into the pitch black darkness, Steven at the front pulling us forwards slowly by lines above us. With nothing but the sounds of drips from stalactites hitting the surface of the water, the slow and low slosh of the boat moving, we looked up. It was a galaxy of twinkling lights above us. As far as we could see in the darkness, more and more appeared as we moved under the formations above. This is the first chamber that Tane and Fred discovered when they floated through the river mouth all those years ago. I can’t imagine what they thought when they saw a roof covered in hundreds of thousands of lights above the water. We did a few laps of this cavern in silent awe, before Steven led us out the same river that this cave was discovered through. 

It was once we exited the cave mouth that our time here was over. We hobbled out of the boat and up the incline and made our way to the carpark, spending a little time next to the river to take it all in before we started our trek home.

We stopped in at Waitomo Homestead for a bite, Drew maintained his controlled testing and grabbed a steak and cheese pie, and I opted for a traditional Maori pie labelled “Boil Up”, which was a mix of beef brisket, greens and potato, pretty yum!

We finished our journey back to Rotorua, had a quick rest at the room before heading down to visit the lake. We’re here for one last evening, heading off on a new adventure tomorrow.