Kiwi Experience Part 3

From Rotorua we traveled to Waitomo, and very small village known for its caving. The afternoon was spent checking out Marokopa Falls (3rd largest falls in NZ), the 'Natural Bridge' and Ruakuri reserve.

Since we weren’t in the mood to get outfitted in wetsuits to go black water rafting (floating in an inner-tube through a cave) we opted for the dry tour of the cave. We went to Ruakuri cave and took a tour on a newly constructed pathway through several cave systems.

During the tour we saw many glowworms illuminating the ceiling of the cave. The glowworm is found all over New Zealand, many in caves, and they have a blue-green glow. The glowworm isn’t actually a worm at all but the larval stage of a fungus gnat that attaches itself to the roof of the cave and produces silk like threads which hang down. Drawn by the chemical light small insects get ensnared in the threads and the glowworms drawn in the threads to eat the bug. It’s actually pretty amazing that any insects would fly down into the caves at all given how cold and dark it can be.