Last day in the North Island

My last day in the North Island was quite an adventure! We traveled to the Waitomo Glowworm Caves and went through the Haggas Honking Holes. This consisted of  a series of abseils, rock climbs, crawling and cruising as we explored the caves. They were covered with waterfalls and "glowworms" which I found out are actually maggots (but that isn't as marketable). I was excited to bring my GoPro down with me, but unfortunately it wasn't allowed. Here are some pictures that they supplied us with...

After some quick safety and guidelines we were ready to climb into the ground.

This is our group that went down together. Looking at the background it is crazy to think that underneath those rolling green hills is a series of caves and water falls. This is located on the Haggas family's farm and that's where the first half of the name comes from.

Some of the areas we climbed through were extremely tight and the flash of the camera takes away from how dark it actually is in there. All you have are the head lamps, which makes it way better to see the glow worms. At points we would all turn off our lights and just appreciate the beauty below the ground.

This is one of my favorite parts. We rappelled down a waterfall (you can kind of see at the bottom of the photo).

This physically demanding experience was one I will never forget. I learned a lot while I was down there as well.  The glowworms are fly larva, or maggots, that have florescent poop (hence the glowing) to attract insects. The light produced may be one of the most efficient, with around 98% light and 2% heat given off. They also produce these paralyzing silk strands around them, kind of like a spider web. After the "worms" cocoon and turn into flies their instinct is to fly up toward the light. 

A lot of the times they end up getting caught in the silk strands and are eaten by their own kind. 

This was called the honking hole due to a structure in the cave. Men (because of their lower voice) can hum into it and it makes a honking noise that rattles the whole area. Our two guides were also amazing, you could tell they were a couple and entertained us with jokes the whole time. 

After our caving experience we were given lunch at a restaurant nearby and even caught a little bit of the Olympics for the first time. 

During our travel to the Waitomo Caves,  our amazing bus driver pointed out Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari to us. 

It's not the best picture but you can see the outline of the dense trees on top. Around that area is a fence that also goes beneath the ground to keep out all types of pests. This is a type of sanctuary for the native species. New Zealand is fighting a never ending battle with foreign plants and animals that over run the land. Here they are able to preserve some of the native bush and they hope to expand as well. 

For dinner we had burgers from a New Zealand franchise, Burger Fuel. Here is mine...I

It had beets and mango on it, which was surprisingly delicious. 

I can't wait to tell you about Dunedin in my next post :)

CHEERS!

CA