Waitomo caves (8th Feb)

Considering the time we went to bed I’m pretty impressed I got up when I did to be honest, Mel assured me that the children would wake me up, but they I was fast asleep when they go up. I’m sure everyone knows by now that not a lot wakes me up in the morning and if it does wake me up then not a lot actually keeps me awake!!
After a bit of breakfast and a cup of tea I headed off down to Waitomo caves on the way to Rotorua.



















Limestone formations


Waitomo caves is where you can see the glowworms which are actually larvae of the fungas gnat. They have an interesting little life which I know is very useful to the ecological balance of the earth but really when you look at it on paper you do begin to wonder why! The larvae stage is a good one, it last between 6 and 9 months and they just hang out in caves eating bugs and insects that come their way along the water streams, to be able to catch their food they throw down hanging threads so when you catch a glimpse of them in a torch light its like a million hanging ropes waiting for dinner. To be able to attract their prey they glow (!) hence the name. When they get to the size of about a matchstick they go into a pupa stage and about two weeks later they become an adult gnat. This is where their problems start though, the adults don’t have a mouth, so all they do is find a mate, breed and die of hunger in about a week. An interesting little life but one that seems to work for them.






















More limestone formations!


There were three caves that I visited and all were slightly different but all contained some fantastic ancient limestone formations, stalactites and stalagmites as far as the eye could see. They say that approximately a square cm of stalactite takes around 600 years to form, you should see the size of some of these formations, we’re talking a seriously long time, and not that long ago tourists were visiting the caves and breaking little bits off to take home with them. Now though they’re highly protected and lovely to visit.



Glowworms!! Can you see them?!