We had multiple caves to choose from in the Otorohanga area. We passed up the most popular cave, Waitomo Cave, as it was a zoo. Think of busses filled with people and the Disney-esque lines for entry. Instead we went to Ruakuri Cave for a longer tour and one that allowed pictures. Our driver reinforced that this decision was, in fact, the correct decision. The Māori discovered this cave 400 years ago when some hunters were attacked by a couple wild Polynesian dogs. The hunters ran off but came back at the behest of the Chief. This time they were ready to take on the dogs and, as the story goes, the Chief ended up with a nice dog skin robe. He was later buried in the entrance of the cave wearing that robe and the name of the cave loosely translated to Den of the Dogs. This entrance is no longer used as it is a scared place to the Māori. As such the owners of the cave needed to find a new way of getting customers into the cave so they built a ramp that allows the people to descend the 30 feet into the cave. This ramp is the picture above and as a side note, it allows this cave to be the only handicap accessible cave in the southern hemisphere. Our guide was Lydia and she was a ball of energy. She kept up a great monologue which was informative and funny. She kept the two small children on the tour entertained by allowing them to press the buttons to turn on the lights. There were stalactites, stalagmites, columns, straws and veils as well as cave coral and flowstone. The tour was 75 minutes and actually ran a bit long. We passed a group that were taking the tour to the next level. They were on the Blackwater tour and using wetsuits and inner-tubes to float down the river inside the cave. That was a bit too adventurous for us. Lydia said that she had to go into the cave and guide someone out that was so freaked out by the experience that she had to GET OUT! We popped up and back into the sunlight and met with our drivers for the trip back to Otorohanga.
The sun was out and we were able to see why the street we are on is called Mountain View Road
These are the mountain ranges where we will be headed next
There was a very steep drop-off behind this house
Our backyard
A huge roadside apple on the way to the cave
The Waitamo Cave entrance waiting area
Lots of room to accommodate lots of people
A much smaller building to greet us at Ruakuri Cave
I thought that this was a wooden bench but it was limestone
Damn those invasive Possums
The cave is under this hill
Welcome Swallows are only found in New Zealand and Australia
Lydia is from Greymouth NZ
Swallow nest at the cave entrance
A cascade of stalactites
Large chambers
Many stalactites
Some of the stalactites were bent. Apparency the wind can make then curve and in this case the wind must have shifted at some point in their creation and they have an elbow to them
A big cascade of formations with, what... ...a person?
Fake spelunkers
Leading into another chamber
Scalloping from the river that flowed through the cave
Water was dripping from this chimney in the rock
Thin ones and thick ones
Serious adventure!
Some of the formations were simply amazing
Lydia leading the way to the glow worms
This is bioluminescence created by the glow worms. This is a picture taken by a professional
The glow worms send down "fishing lines" made from mucus and urea or snot and pee as Lydia described it. Again this wass a professional taking this picture
This was my picture, no tripod and competing ambient light from everyone else's phones
What you can see here was about a third of what we could see
These are the fishing lines with some blue glow worms above
My other camera captured the color better
But the lack of a tripod made the dots into squiggles
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Underground smooching!
The long arm of the selfie
We have reached the grand finale
So thick with formations
Very thin straws
A big veil formation
There is a stream of water here, so clear that it is invisible because the water is so clear. If you look to the top you can see the wet rock
Fossil Scallop shells
A flashlight illuminating the calcite of a broken stalactite
The blue stairs of the exit
