Waitomo Caves

Waitomo Hills.

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The coach ride to Waitomo was suprisingly pleasant. The coach was very comfortable and the driver pointed out various points of interest as we travelled south. We stopped for a morning break at Rangiri, the site of a famous battle between Maori and British armies. As it goes the British were a bit trigger happy and ran out of ammo. The Maori, always up for a fair fight, sent some ammo across the battlefield so that the Brits could carry on. The battle only ended because the Maori appaerntly thought a white flag meant truce and therefore accidently surrendered!

Anyway, as for Waitomo. It is the site of the Waitomo caves, a site that supposedly attracts half a million visitors a year. Thankfully, it is still not tourist season yet, and we arrived to a peaceful little village nestled in a valley amongst vast rolling hills. Our hostel was nothing like any other we have stayed in, and the rooms were all more like chalets than anything else. In the afternoon we visited the caves, famous for the limestone formations of stalagmites and stalactites, but more famous for it's gloworms. These strange little creatures light up the roof of the caves in a way that look a little like stars in the sky at night. All in all the tour was very enjoyable, although there are no pictures as apparently it harms the gloworms.

Waitomo Hills

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In the evening we walked up to Ruakuri, a series of footpaths that follow natural tunnels through the limestone rock in an amongst rivers and waterfalls. After dark you are supposed to be able to spot gloworms, but Hannah wasn't too comfortable in the woods at dusk and so we headed back.

We only stayed in one night in Waitomo, as it is only a very small village. The caves were definately worth the visit, but we had no reason stay longer than one night and so travelled onwards further into the north island.

J