Twinkle twinkle

We found ourselves in Waitomo Caves following a long, but spectacular journey along the 'forgotten world highway'.  

We took an evening walk by torchlight through an amazing gorge. The river crashed through a cave, emerging at the other end into a different part of the valley. We saw glow worms on the roof of the cave and then on the walls of the valley. These were pin pricks of green light, not like the fire flies or glow worms we had seen in Europe or America. 

The next morning we visited the famous glow worm caves - the same ones visited by David Attenborough when making his TV programme a few years ago. In essence, the glow worms create an evil trap for unsuspecting flying insects. The insects are attracted by the light and become ensnared in fine threads dropped by the glow worms and are then hoisted aloft to be eaten. 

From our point of view the glow worms create a magical galaxy of points of light in the ceiling. We floated downstream in  a boat with no additional source of light. Even underground, it is surprising how well you can see with just a few thousand glow worms for illumination. 

Back on the surface, our guide demonstrated that his stories of monster eels were not an exaggeration by casting some meat into a small stream, at which point a huge eel emerged. It was about three-quarters of a metre in length and as thick as a man's forearm. The guide wrestled with this beast for a few seconds before returning it to its watery lair. Apparently they can grow to 2 metres in length, so this one was just a tiddler. 

A second cave was less spectacular, but did include the bones of a Moa - an extinct flightless bird bigger than a modern ostrich. 

We later visited a bird sanctuary, mainly because we wanted to see some kiwis that weren't stuffed. They are delightful creatures, crashing about the undergrowth of their enclosure, deftly prodding the ground to search for insects and worms with their amazingly long beaks. They reminded us of skaters bent over with their hands behind their backs. 

We journeyed on to Taupo on the shores of Lake Taupo, the largest inland lake in NZ. It occupies the flooded crater of a former volcano - the largest volcano ever known on earth - that erupted many thousands of years ago.  Our hotel is on the shore of the lake.  We trust there will be no further eruptions while we are here.