Glow Little Glow Worm
Trip Start
Dec 01, 2009
1
39
42
Trip End
Ongoing
Waitomo Caves, Auckland, New Zealand
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The Waitomo Caves are a network of twisting subterranean limestone caverns. They are also home to the Glow Worms, which are unique to New Zealand and Australia. Our group had a young couple from Germany and an older couple from the Netherlands. The dutch man was our favorite, as he sang the whole way, and the soundtrack changed depending on what stage of the trip we were on.
We put on our hot caving outfits, complete with wet suits, rubber boots, helmets and leggings and headed off. Our first stop was repelling (which we have discovered on this trip that the rest of the world calls abseiling). We learned how to make ourselves go quickly or slowly as we descend 30 meters into the abyss.
Once inside the cave, we were knee deep in freezing cold water. Luckily, our wetsuits kept us warm enough. We were all given tubes, and then we set off into the darkness. Floating down the river, we turned our headlamps off and the cave was illuminated by thousands of tiny glowworms. The Glow Worms are the larvae of a fly. They glow to attract their food, and trap their prey by hanging "mucous hammocks" (tiny sticky strings) below them.
We also got to try out spelunking techniques like squeezes, which is contorting your body into extremely small spaces. We pulled ourselves laying down through tight crawlspaces, and flattened ourselves against walls. We also tubed through the deep parts of the cave in the darkness. After 3 hours we made our way back to where we had entered the cave, and rock climbed out.
Comments
OMG THIS IS STRAIGHT OUT OF PLANET EARTH!!!! i read this entire blog in my head with sigourney weaver's voice narrating!!!
How amazing! I was just thinking of those little glow worms the other day as I walked through a dirty Chicago tunnel- not quite the same experience, but I think we had some cosmic telepathy going on! Beautiful pics and you grrls are totally brave!