WAITOMO CAVES (06/08/09)
The Waitomo region is world famous for it's spectacular cave systems. We travelled south of Auckland to visit the cave featured on David Attenborough's Planet Earth series - the Glow Worm Cave. Unfortunately photography is strictly prohibited in the cave but we took a boat through and saw tens of thousnds of blue pinpricks of light covering the roof and walls, an unforgettable experience. Ruakuri Cave, however, does allow photography so we visited in the afternoon entering through this incredible spiral walkway.
The cave is filled with thousands of fantastic calcite formations.
This formation is known as 'the curtain' and was formed by water tricking over a rock face depositing calcium over hundreds of years. When the rock crumbled away it left this thin mineral veil.
Although not as impressive as the glowworm cave Ruakuri also has many on the walls and ceiling.
The glow worms ( actually the maggot of a species of fly) hang a sticky silk thread down from the cave roof. Then they excrete a bioluminescent chemical which emits a blue light attracting flying insects to be captured by the sticky thread.
We had a great time in the caves.
There were thousands and thousands of stalagtites and stalagmites of varying sizes.
Growing at a rate of only about 1cm per year even the smaller formations can be hundreds of years old. As a result there is a $10,000 fine for anyone damaging or breaking the formations.
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