Before I arrived in New Zealand, I talked to quite a few people who had recommendations of places that I should go, things I should do, places to see.. and although most of them had their own idea of what was best for my traveling journey, almost all of them mentioned the Waitomo caves. They said that this was a place you just had to see.. there was no way to describe it other than a cave with worms inside, yet nevertheless I could feel their admiration as they talked about it and became excited myself to one day visit this place.
Lucky for me, that day was this past Sunday. The tour bus I was on decided to change its regular route and make a stop in Waitomo on the way back to Auckland from Rotorua and Taupo. Waitomo is a small desolate town with not much to it at all… but what it did have were these caves…
The tour itself that I signed up for that day was a short 40 minute tour through the caves by foot, that ended with a boat ride through the water of the caves.
I learned that these massive caves were created over 30 millions years ago by (basically) sea shells, water, and pressure..and of course lots and lots of time. Over the course of this time, a river seeped through the cracks of the caves and now flows through them freely creating a naturally moist and cold habitat for the glow worms to breed and grow in.
In all honesty, I found the tour before the boat ride, rather dry other than a few interesting factual points, this is most likely due to our oddly deranged tour guide for the day, however, the silent boat ride that followed could have made up for pretty much anything.
A group of about 25 of us entered into a small steel boat in pitch darkness, only guided by the minute light at the end of our tour guide’s flashlight. We sat down and were gently guided in and around the dark cave. The boat was guided by our guide’s physical pulling on a rope overhead in order not to create much noise and disturb the glow worms home. We were only visitors and spectators after all. It began feeling a bit spooky, not knowing where we were, what we were about to hit, and just feeling that we were in a space that we would never know the full appearance of.
I peered up at the ceiling and saw millions of twinkling little stars, almost like a fake starry sky hanging over me, except that this sky was a bunch of worms somehow crafting this particular beauty.
I felt still…silent…and almost numb. The feeling that pure silence makes when collided with absolute darkness all around you is one of the strangest feelings i’ve ever felt. And on top of that there was natural light being projected from the ceiling in a way that I had never witnessed before.
And this was a true epiphany moment to add to my growing collection of travel memories. That beauty can truly be found in all forms… even in the form of a worm.
Joyful Thinking 