Cravin Cavin

Wednesday December 2, 2009

Rain, rain go away! Ok you can stay, because we were underground caving today. We are in Waitomo, home of some the best natural underground experiences. Glow worms, stalactites and stalagmites were our targets. We ventured through 3 caves.
The first cave started out with a 30m downward spiral. The cave has been modernized over the years and a new entrance was built to avoid entering near a Maori burial site. There is nothing like winding yourself into a dark hole, especially if you don’t like spinning! Motion sickness was not too far away for me. At the bottom, a new world began. Stalactites were everywhere. We learned that the drainage from the hills above were draining through the limestone rock causing the evolution of the stalactites over thousands of years. We were only allowed to take pictures in these areas but not in the glowworm areas, which was a little disappointing because it is a quite a sight to see, but I guess we should preserve these little insects. The glow bugs are the larvae with their butts aglow. These poor little guys have a grand lifespan of 12 weeks. They only get to be an adult for 3-5 days. They make the most of their time making more little illuminations. We got to see the glow worms up close when our guide put a flashlight beam up to them. They have “snot” mucous lines hanging down. It was amazing to learn that when they were updating the cave passageways, the men rafted to work along the underground river! There was no other way to get there. It was also cool when the kids got to see other tourists Blackwater Rafting, which we had done many years before. They were amazed that the people were riding through the dark on inner tubes. It was a nice memory for us to relive and it was much warmer this time, not floating in that freezing cold water.

At the 2nd cave, Aranui, we just got to view stalactites and mites. The kids were asked to guess the age of the huge stalactite. They guessed 200 years old. They were close… 400 000 years. They then got to hold a piece of fallen stalactite. It was surprisingly heavy. Those things only grow 1cm squared every 100 years. Di was happy to see the entire cave this time, as she was unable to the last time with her parents. We took heaps more pics, but you can only take so many pics of the same thing.

At the 3rd and final cave, we were a little worried that we had pushed our luck with the kids and their attention spans. This cave had a boat ride through the glow worm section. The glow worms really only like to be near the water and they didn’t disappoint. Amelia described it as the best Christmas lights she had ever seen. Getting on the boat, of course, had a little bump in the road. It is complete darkness and Bridget decides to melt down. She is freaking out about going on the boat. We encourage and boost up her confidence and get her on the boat. She is clinging on to both of us for dear life. When asked why she is so worried, her answer is that she does not know how we are going to get back to land!! She didn’t know how the boat was going to be steered and also worried about bonking into the rock walls. Once she saw the guide ropes that the guide was going to use and realized that we were travelling very slowly she finally relaxed to enjoy the sights. The other highlight in this cave was singing Christmas carols in the huge cavern area. The acoustics were amazing as we sang “We wish you a Merry Christmas”. Even I sounded good.

Off to Mt. Taranaki tomorrow.
Carolyn