Glow Maggot Caves
Trip Start
Jul 01, 2011
1
42
56
Trip End
Aug 22, 2011
Where I stayed
What I did
Lots of fun water activities
Waitomo Caves, North Island, New Zealand
Monday, August 8, 2011
First up: Black Water Tubing. Our morning started off by suiting up once again into some wet suits. Not only were these suits still wet from the night before, but they were FREEZING. We put on wet socks, wet wetsuits, dry thermo shirts and then a wet jacket. Once we suited up, we put on some pretty hot looking helmets with lights on the top. Then we all huddled into a van and headed off to the caves. We stopped before reaching the top of the cave to pick out our tubes. We were instructed to bend over and try and stick our bums through the tube. If your bum didn't fit, your tube was too small. If your bum made it through, you were good to go. After we had the proper bum fitting tube, we were ready for some practice. We all had to stand backwards on a bridge and jump backwards into the water. The water was freezing!! Once we were wet and all practiced up, we headed back into the van and up the hill into the cave. As we entered the cave, we were knee deep in water most of the time. FREEZING cold water!! We travelled down different paths sometimes walking and with our tubes and sometimes floating. We jumped backwards over several different waterfalls. At times we linked together by our feet and were pulled along the bottom of the cave (this is called eeling). We were told different information on the tour and saw millions of glow worms… or as we were informed glow maggots! Yep…not cute little worms…but maggots. Apparently advertising maggots would not attract as many people as glow worms. The cave was really cool, and although we had frozen hands and feet, it was totally worth it. Our guides said "If your hands and feet get cold… we don’t want to hear about it. Yes, your feet and hands will be cold, because they are in freezing water." After we were done our tour in the cave, we headed back to our clothes. We had to take off our freezing gear, which was not awesome, but then headed into hot showers, and had a bagel and some soup. It was a great way to start off our day!
Next up: The Zorb
The Zorb Co. is a New Zealand company which invented the Zorb. Rotorua is the home of the Zorb which is a 3.5m inflatable. We did the Zydro ride which is the wet option because they put water in so that you slip, slide and spin on the way down the hill.
This was beyond amazing! I think it was the funniest thing I have done… not just here, but ever. After finally being dry and warm from the morning, it was time to get cold and wet again. We had to put on our wet bathing suits and drive up to the top of a hill. Once we were up there, they filled the zorb with warm water- yes nice warm water… like a nice bath. Next we had to jump in the zorb; superman style. We had a bit of miscommunication with the guide and Katie and I ended up in the same zorb on the fast track. We had a blast anyways. Once we were both in the zorb, we were loving our nice warm bubble bath. Then the ride started! It was crazy fun… we were splashing around and rolling around each other, hitting each other and laughing our heads off. The ride was done before we knew it. Again we had a miscommunication with the guides, and both of us attempted to get out of the zorb at the same time. It was pretty funny, as clearly we couldn’t do it- notice the picture of 4 feet trying to get out instead of 2! Once we were out, we were FREEZING again… but it was worth it! We both loved it!!! Anyone who ever has a chance to do it, don’t miss out!
After that: Checking in and Rotorua
We finally warmed up a bit and entered the smelliest place in New Zealand - it smells really bad (rotten eggs) because there is sulphur oozing out of the ground. We were on the search for a tea pot, but didn’t have any luck. The city itself was pretty cool. It has a lot of little stores and steam seeping out of the ground.
Lastly: Dinner “Hangi” at a Maori cultural site.
We started off under a huge tent, where we discovered that we were a tribe of 16 nations from all over the world. Then we headed off to the woods, with blankets wrapped around us. As we walking through the woods, we heard warrior calls out in the distance. The calls got louder and louder, and finally we could see the Maori warriors in a huge canoe chanting and sticking their tongues out at us. After they were done, they ran ahead of us and we followed them into an auditorium where they put on a show of us. Our chief- some poor guy named Ross from the UK had to say a speech and accept a peace offering from their chief. They called this a “marae” (meeting ground) and then we watch a Maori cultural performance. There was a lot of dancing, and singing. They did the famous “Haka” for us which was really cool to see. They also showed us a lot of their weapons, tools, games and dances. It was really interesting. After the cultural performance, we headed back into the big tent for our feast. The food was cooked underground (Jensen remember when we cooked that turkey underground…where was that again???)The food was amazing. They had all kinds of salad, rice, stuffing, chicken, lamb, potatoes and all kinds and dessert. I had 2 plates worth… then felt sick after, but it was worth it! After we were done eating, we went on a night walk; blankets back in hand, and well equipped with flashlights (torches). We revisited the performance site, and certain people asked tones of questions (not anyone from our tour group, we were the ones rolling our eyes). A half hour later, we walked down the trail to see some more glow worms and the bubbling cool water springs which supply crystal clear, clean water to their river and lake.
All and all it was a fantastic day!
Lessons Learned:
1. When it comes to glow worms they’re not actually worms at all. They’re flies. The part that is actually glowing is the feces in the larva sack of the maggot…nice huh!
2. Watching someone get out of the zorb is like watching a birthing video – liquid gushing out, feet and arms everywhere, and people screaming at the introduction to the outside world.
3. Even in tour groups there is always that one person who drags out the most boring tour by asking the stupidest questions that NO ONE cares about.
4. We learned what Haka means – “breath of life”. This is good for us to know considering we’re with a tour company called “Haka Tours”.
Love Jenny and Katie
