Kia Ora: Post 8

Mt. Ngauruhoe in the Rangipo Desert.
Aranui Cave near the Waitomo Caves.
Chillin' with a stalagmite in the Aranui Cave.
My namesakes burial site in the town of Kihikihi.
Plaque at the memorial site for Rewi Maniapoto.

We stayed the night in Wanganui last night and then headed north to the Waitomo Caves near the town of Te Kuiti before we head to Hamilton for our last night in NZ.

We checked out the Aranui Cave first. This cave is spectacular in that is hosts many formations, mainly stalagtites and stalagmites. This cave was discovered by a maori boar hunter in the late 19th century after his hunting dog chased a pig into the cave. This guy must have been a hardcore bush hunter because the cloak of flora that make up the surrounding forest, (and pretty much all of NZ forested areas), is very thick. Think machete-hacking, arm-gouging thick.

Afterward it was on to the highlight of the area: the Glowworm Cave. This cave doesn't host impressive formations like the Aranui Cave but has something even cooler and very unique: glowworms.

These interesting little devils live on the ceiling in a part of the cave that has standing water in it. The guides corral you into a little boat and float you directly under the concentrations of glowworms as they reside on the ceiling not far above your head. The survival story of these little guys is interesting: They live in parts of the cave that have water in them. Towards the evening, as air pushes through these certain areas, insects are blown into the cave. Upon entering the darkness of the cave, they become disorientated and fly straight up towards the glow of the worms. What the bugs don't realize is that the glowworms have these straight webs that resemble a thin necklace that hang straight down. The bugs go up, get caught and the the worm reels in it's dinner. What makes the glowworm glow is that fact that they don't excrete their waste, they recycle it throughout their little bodies and voila, they glow!

After the cave it was time to start heading to Hamilton for the night. Along the way we had the very pleasant surprise of stumbling across the burial site and memorial for whom I was named after: Rewi Maniapoto. I won't go into the story of Rewi but will say that he was a very significant Maori chief who played a major role in the preservation of the Maori culture, land and heritage among the Maori people during the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. He was my nanny Millie's great uncle.