Waitomo glow worm caves

One of our favorite stops so far has been at the Waitomo Glow Worm caves. They had been on our list to visit from pretty early on in the planning process because a) glow worms!!!, b) we’d heard very good things and c) the Waitomo caves are probably the most famous of many glow worm caves around the country — and they did not disappoint.

Glow worms are exactly what you would imagine: little glowy worms that look magical when you’re staring up at the ceiling of a dark cave :) We took a tour that led us through an impressive cave with large rooms and neat formations, then took us down deeper into the cave to a section of river flowing through and out of the cave. We boarded a boat and got to float in silence along the river for a bit, staring up at bluish green glowing dots on the ceiling of the cave. It was incredibly beautiful and unique.

Glow worms are a pretty strange creature – they’re the larvae stage of a fly that lays its eggs in caves in groups of about 20-30. One of the eggs in each group ends up being the first to mature into a worm, which then eats all of the other eggs in its group in order to stay alive. Then the worm creates sticky threads that it hangs down from the cave ceiling and emits a glowing light to attract other insects that fly into the cave. Those insects get stuck on the threads and the worm can eat them too. Eventually (after about 9 months as a worm) it cocoons and turns into the fly, which usually flies directly into one of the other glow worm’s threads and gets eaten itself…

There are no photos allowed in the cave, and it would be really difficult to photograph anyway, but it’s located in a beautifully lush river valley with lots of cool rock outcroppings, and we snapped a couple of photos from a walk we did in the area after our tour.