Waitomo Glowworm Caves

A litter starry night in a cave deep under ground. We did the Ruakuri Cave that has a spiral ramp that walks you deep underground, and you follow a guide along a path through the caves.

Two notes before I jump into the review:

1. if you wanna bring a baby, your stroller will likely fit, but my friends wished they used their body-carrier instead.
2. if you are scared of heights, be prepared!The path has a number of suspension bridges - My husband was terrified at some points and had a death-grip on the railing when we were over the river in pitch black.

... So I've also got to admit, before visiting the Waitomo Caves my knowledge of glowworms came from Disney movies. I thought they were winged bugs that flew around at night with glowing buts. You think I would have realised given their name: glowWORM! Woops!!! So, yep, glowworms are the larvae of a flying bug that live deep underground, in complete darkness, and they glow to attract other bugs in to eat. Very cool and weird. But also really really pretty! We decended into pitch black, followed the path, and when the guide turned out the path lights, you could see a starry night above you in the caves. And when we reached the underground river there were even more. Our guide knew so much about the caves and the glowworms and he was a pure joy to listen too. And the weird majesty of how water has carved out these giant caves over the centuries is just fantastic. But I won't attempt to explain it because words don't describe it.

The whole experience was so freaking cool and weird and beautiful and magical!!! ... but no one randomly broke into song soooooo was it really that magical??? You need to go see for yourself!!!