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| Patea beach from the cliffs in the morning |
We had a 4pm booking at the Waitomo Glow Worm caves but
instead of going the fastest route we had noticed ‘The Forgotten Highway’, route
number 43, through the mountains, named as such because it was one of the first
routes used by settlers but there are now much more straight forward routes
around the island!
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| Mount Taranaki poking out above the clouds |
The Satnav was warning us to turn back as soon as we went
against her orders, but we persevered.
We had seen that we would be passing New Zealand’s second highest
waterfall taking this route so we were not to be deterred. We wound around the roads and went up and
over four saddles across the mountains and through some very narrow and ancient tunnels.
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| Crossing the Strathmore saddle |
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| View across the Tahora saddle |
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| The single lane road through the Moki Tunnel - cross your fingers no one comes through the other way! (The Forgotten Highway? I think they should call this the 'forgotten to rebuild the tunnel' tunnel) |
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| Mount Damper waterfall |
Having traversed roughly two thirds of the
highway I noticed a small yellow sign for the Mount Damper waterfall and we
veered off to the left. It was a twenty
minute walk each way to a look-out for the falls. They were stunning, despite not being as full
as they can be after heavy rain.
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| The 'mist' as the base of Damper falls |
Hitting the road (unmade at times) from the falls we were cutting it
fine to make our 4pm booking. In the end
we had to wait until we had phone signal and call to postpone our tour until
430pm. This at least gave us the chance
to stop for something to eat and a comfort break that we had ignored up to that
point!
We were in good time for our 430pm tour. Our guide led us into the caves, formed
mostly of limestone and tens of thousands of years old. The glow worms have been here for as long as
man has ventured into this cave system.
The caves still belong to the family of the original Maori settlers and
many of the staff there are related to those settlers. There was a strict no camera rule to avoid
disturbing the worms and they encouraged everyone to be as quiet as
possible. The caves were cool and fresh-smelling
with some intricate formations of stalactites and stalagmites. As soon as some areas were dark enough we
noticed the pale bluey/green lights of the glow-worms. The insects are about
the size of a matchstick and each spins itself a web from which it hangs
threads down from the roof of the cave.
We were able to see these threads when our guide shone a torch across
the ceiling of the cave. They were
everywhere! Just like a spider’s web, these threads catch the flies and
mosquitoes that are attracted into the trap by the light emitted from the
glow-worm’s posterior. Each worm lives
for approximately a year, gradually building in size and strength, it’s light
getting stronger, until it is ready to reproduce. The female lays about 120
eggs and the cycle is repeated.
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| Photos brought to you thanks to the interweb... |
Having learnt our bug basics, we were then invited to board
a boat in silence, kind of like in Charlie and the Chocolate factory, to
explore the river (though sadly this one was not made of chocolate!). It was an eerie but relaxing and completely
unique experience. In the silence all I
could hear was the regular drip-drip of water from the ceiling of the cave and
all I could see were the thousands of tiny lights above my head which were then
reflected back from the surface of the water. It became apparent that our guide
was steering the boat by pulling on cables suspended above our heads.
We sailed through the cave system for roughly
ten minutes before gliding into daylight within a rainforest.
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| The path out of the glowworm caves |
The whole visit lasted for just over an
hour. We had a BOGOF offer through our
camper company, otherwise it would have cost us $50 each – a little too
expensive for the short visit I felt, but I was happy with our deal!
After purchasing our first NZ shot glass in
the gift shop we drove a short distance to a farm-stay campsite where we’d seen
we could stay for $30, say hello to some animals and be a short drive from our
first port of call in the morning.
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| The 'Famous' Waitomo house truck at our campsite... |
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| One of the other happy campers |
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