Middle Earth Tour Day 15: The non radioactive glowing caves of Waitomo

Middle Earth Tour Day 15: The non radioactive glowing caves of Waitomo

Today was the day that I would be visiting the Waitomo caves. On every other trip I had been on in the past the bus or even train had passed this area on my way either to the north or south. Finally after so long I was finally going to head there and after doing some research where I wouldn’t be relying on the Intercity or great sights type us. I was going there by the local taxi service who seem to service the area and they have an online presence too. I was woken up by a dirty loud alarm that I was not going to move out of bed to find out what it was all about. It had whirred on just after 6am in the morning and I went back to sleep hoping here was no major warnings. The weather that had became a little wet the night before turned out to be really nice even if there was a little bit of cloud in the sky. The bed was decent unlike the hostel that was hard and a thin matress, but I think I slept really well and was warm.

Once I was up and moving I went to a local cafe that sold pies and large ones at that though it was the coffee I really was after and I was happy to have that. I was chatting away with the lady behind the counter who told me she had been to the Gold Coast for her honeymoon. The coffee was good though I do wonder why the park owner didn’t recommend that place as a place to eat since they are closer than anyone else. It wasn’t a long wait until I had to catch the taxi and I was informed by the park owner that the alarm was for the rural fire brigade to get the volunteers out. The taxi soon turned up and he is a lovely old chap called Bob who lives in the area for all his life though he was bought up near the caves. He had plenty of information on the area and was telling me his sole passenger all about what was happening in the area like the beginnings of the Haka and when Governor Grey and a local Maori chief were sorting out borders with hats. The monument for that fact is just up the road on the wrong side, but I got another monument for that in town. He dropped me off in front of the Waitomo glow worm caves entrance and I was to meet him later that afternoon at the information centre. He explained to me what the loos meant with the Tane being for the men, which I already knew.

I had booked two tours to go on while I was at Waitomo. The first was to see the glow worms and the other was to have a trek underground in the caves. I wasn’t pushing my luck with going black water rafting in the caves as I didn’t have all the gear required. We were told there was to be no photography inside the cave and the guide was funny when he asked where everyone was from and said hello in that language especially a very British Helloo and for me G’day mate of course. I was explained how the formations were created in the limestone caves from the water and that the water drips on Fridays taking only around 100 years to make 1cm. We were shown the cathedral where people could get married and one of the people local to the area had and her great great grandfather with more greats had been owner of the cave. The caves were part of the government until handed back to the traditional owners. The entrances were also burial sites at times as people were afraid of the spirits inside. We were shown that the glow worms had sticky dangly lines to catch their prey that they ate. We were then taken down into the caves for a boat ride to see the worms glowing. They were spectacular and well worth the trip to visit as they glowed on the ceiling like stars as there were so many of them.

The next part of my dual tours was the Ruakuri cave where we were picked up and taken to another cave system further down the road. The guide explained that the owner of the cave group was only 16 when he had found this one and he is now in his 60s or 70s now and took them a long time to make the entrance to the system we were going down. We were shown the different type of formations that were there and were told any damage to the cave formations would mean a $10,000 fine. One such was called a sheet and we were shown that there are alarms around a few on them on the walk so that they would sound when a hand went too close like when I tried it. I was not the only one who had done that at all. The glow worms were described here as being not worms but maggots that ate their own and had shiny poo. It was a pretty big system were in and I had only been though a man made mine before and this was very different. Nearby there were adventure cavers doing their own thing and the loud rush of water of a huge waterfall that we were told was only ankle deep water and five foot high and a picture was taken of several disappointed people. One of the caverns was known for being a den of dogs where a chief had been buried and was tapu, which was why some couldn’t go through the natural entrances. It is remarkable what rock and water can do. We were told stories about the construction of the cave walk ways to protect them from the tourists. In some places we were suspended in mid air. The main part of the entrance to the cave system was a spiral ramp that took you up or down and was apparently well known.

Once we were finished we were dropped off back at the glow worm cave though I wanted to take a walk through the bush to town via a lookout. The walk was steep and up a few flights of stairs where I met some skittish cows that were watching me take pictures from the lookout. On the way down I tried taking pictures of some fast flying bumblebees. I was worried on the walk into town that the path I was on was the wrong one as I was on one side of a stream until I came to a bridge and then I knew I was alright. I was in the Village of Waitomo and there was not much to see at all other than a few shops and the information centre. I went to the store where it had not much supermarket stuff at all. I had lunch there and went on my way out of town. I was thinking about visiting the local Pa sight as it was labelled for being a fortress type thing from the Maori, but I had no idea how far it would be so I turned back. I didn’t ant to take too much time as I didn’t have heaps of time left. The information centre and museum was my next stop where I got to watch about the life cycle of the glow worm and its sticky thread. It was a strange creature and I never knew it had a small section to itself with a few threads. The museum was about the history of the caves and the tourism in the area that began around 1887 and until the present time. The historic building I found was the Waitomo caves hotel and that was a big building on the hill.

It was time for me to go and I was wondering f Bob had remembered that I had been ready to be picked up and he was running a bit late. I was starting to wonder though I was reading a book if he had not gone to sleep and forgot. Also I owed him money and if he didn’t turn up I could be stuck for a bit. He did eventually turn up, but found it was a bus that had been late. I was his only passenger back to town though he had dropped people off at Waitomo. It was then that I had learnt he had grown up in the area and had been driving taxis for around 50 of those years. He joked that he was on autopilot from a certain point down the road. He wasn’t that impressed with the caravan park owner telling me it was alright to cross the train tracks especially since I heard that someone locally had died being hit by a train. I did ask about Harrodsville and he gave me the story about that, but I have not found the kiwiana type thing about that since the town goes through the history of various things that make New Zealand famous. The information centre was still open when I arrived in town so I went looking for ideas like walks other than the kiwi house.

The kiwi house is my trip for the second day in Otorohanga and I have been told its the biggest walk in aviary in the southern hemisphere. I have no reason to doubt old Bob on that and he gave me his business car where he can get a discount for me by showing it. I have no idea what to do in town other than do some ore exploring in some areas as its really small and I would miss it if I blinked. The town is really not that big at all and I have walked some of the main street already.