Caves day 3 of trip

after reaching rotorua late Monday evening we checked in at the base after 15 minutes of walking in the light drizzle. We dropped off our stuff and went to eat at a good chicken place called Nandos. On Tuesday we woke up early and caught the bus to take us to the glow worm caves. The bus ride was about an hour and half to get there. we arrive and we are told we have to walk 10 mins to get the right place. We get there and the lady was so nice me Katie had messed up our dates when booking it and since the bus was late we missed the 11 o’clock tour. But it all worked out and we were able to go through the glow worm cave and the Aranui cave. The glowworm cave was pretty cool we weren’t allowed to take pictures in that cave. However, glowworm caves are only in NZ and Australia. They need a flowing river to survive. The reason they glow is to express that they are hungry. How they feed themselves is similar to a spider where it create a string like substance and the bugs get caught in it and they eat. They make cocoons and they even turn into a flying bug that is apart of the fly family. Cool facts about glowworms. The tallest part of a cave is a theater. They actually have had weddings in these caves. During Christmas they have Christmas concerts in there as well. Once we reached near the end of the cave we stepped in a boat and we all looked up to see the millions of glowworms that looked like stars in the night sky. It was magnificent to see.

These pictures are at the end of glowworm cave

The next cave the Aranui cave was about a 5 min drive from the glowworm cave. We followed our tour guide up stairs. New Zealand should be renamed THE LAND OF STEPS!! We stepped into the cave and our guide told us a man name Aranui found this cave because his dog ran off and ended up in there. The furthest he got in the massive cave we got to see was pretty much the entrance. She showed us a cave bug kind of looked like a big cricket to me. The cave was so cool and beauty. apparently it’s illegal to take and especially break a piece of a cave off and take it with you. She let us hold a piece that had broken off and it was sooo heavy. Once we reach the end it kind of crazy because our tour was like on the way back it looks different and she was right. I really enjoyed the cave experience.