Day 54: Galaxies on the Ceiling — Matt Goes Exploring

Today I visited the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. This was my last iconic New Zealand experience, but I didn't let that bother me.

Let me start at the beginning. As you may know from reading yesterday's post, my hostel is a bit of a hike from the caves. This became a problem when I don't have a car and it was pouring rain. Luckily I asked the reception desk and Rachel, who was working at the desk today, was kind enough to give me a ride. She even told me to call her when I was done so I didn't have to walk back. Thank goodness for nice people.

I arrived at the caves in time for the 11:00am tour and the guide led our group into the cave. I was instantly blown away by the beauty of the cave. Over hundreds of years the slow drip of water had created a magnificent chamber of otherworldly structures. Walls of descending limestone like stairs up to some great hall in the darkness. Spires building slowly from the cave floor to one day connect with the spike hanging above.

Our guide showed us rock formations of all shapes and sizes, including one that had recently been nicknamed "the skydiving kiwi" because it looks remarkably like a kiwi diving straight down.

Next the tour group climbed into a boat. Our guide steered us through the cave waters using a system of ropes that stretched between the walls. He would simply pull the boat along the ropes.

Once we were on the boat, it was pitch dark. There was no light but the eerie green light of the glowworms above our heads. It felt like I was staring into the night sky. The glowworms spread and bunched up creating their own galaxies and universes. The tour ended far too quickly for my liking, I could have stayed in that darkness for a lot longer, staring up at the green glowing stars.

Unfortunately, there was no photography allowed within the caves, so I don't have anything good to show you there. I do have this image though, which I think is a good representation of what I did.

After the tour I had lunch at the cave, since they had their own cafe at the entrance. I checked for worms, and thankfully they didn't put any in my sandwich.

Rachel was kind enough to pick me up and take me back to the hostel. On the ride back she told me that she never got tired of seeing the glowworms. I couldn't help but agree, even though I had only one full experience with them. She even said that some people prefer the worms to the actual stars. And honestly I can see where they're coming from. But it was cloudy tonight so I still need a good chance to see the stars before I ultimately decide.

Once back at the hostel I had time to kill. I played some darts with myself, watched a movie. And there wasn't much else left to do. Fortunately my roommate Erin got back from her day of caving and plugged in her external hard drive to the DVD player (which I didn't even know was possible). She had a ton of movies on there so we spent the afternoon and evening marathoning some great movies. First was Planet Terror, a zombie movie featuring Quentin Tarantino and a girl with a machine gun leg. Then back to the classics with the first Men In Black, and finally wrapping the night with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. I hadn't even seen the first one, but it was still quite enjoyable for all the food bases puns.

A particular favorite pun: "There's a leak in the boat!" *there's an actual leek in the boat*

It definitely comes across better on screen.

Unfortunately that pretty much does it for my time in New Zealand, and for my world trip in general. Tomorrow I take a bus to Auckland, and fly back to the U.S. the following day.

But that won't be my final stop. I'm finally going to Los Angeles on my way back home. I say finally because some of the closest friends I made in college have lived there for over a year and I still haven't visited. So really it's overdue. But only a few days in LA before I have to go back to the real world. Oh boy, not gonna start thinking about that just yet.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my New Zealand adventures, and I hope to come back to this country some day. I don't hope actually, I will come back to this country some day. Even with two weeks here, there is still so much that I did not get to see. I can't let that go unnoticed. So I don't say goodbye to New Zealand, I say see you soon.

Thanks for reading and here's to tomorrow.

P.S. The glowworms reminded me of those tiny glow-in-the-dark stars that I had on the ceiling as a kid. Does anyone else remember those?