Waitomo Glow Worm Caves

“In the Waitomo caves in New Zealand, thousands of blue lights dangle from the ceilings, twinkling like stars in a night sky.” – NY Times

We joined the many tourist who flock to the the Waitomo area to see the glowworms.

But, first, we checked in to a small BnB about 10 minutes away. The owner also runs a store in town so he left instructions for checking in. He also entrusted his friendly feline greeting committee to make sure we were feeling right at home.

Once we were checked in we drove over for our tour of the caves. We reserved our tickets online. Pro Tip: The tours fill up fast, we recommend you book your spot in advance. Click here for their website.

We were surprised to learn Queen Elizabeth had taken the same tour of these caves in 1953.

As part of the tour we learned that the glowworms are actually the larvae of a species of fungus gnat (eww!), and only exist in New Zealand. They construct vertical silk threads coated with mucus to trap flying insects – very similar to spider webs.

We were not able to take photographs during our tour so here are some pictures I found online.

“To attract its victim, the glow worm illuminates its net of reflective drops by turning on its bioluminescent tail” – NY Times

Our tour took us down into the caves until we reached the river. We all quietly boarded a small boat and our guide used ropes anchored above us to guide the boat through the cave. We were told that both sound and light disturb the glowworms. So, we whispered the whole way. There are very few times that we sit still and just tune out everything. It was much more peaceful than I was expecting.

We were finally able to take a picture when we left the cave.

We stopped at a nearby pub on the way back to our room.

This was just a quick, overnight stop as we continue to drive south through New Zealand.