Day 107 February 24th 2007, Backsides on Fire - Waitomo to Rotorua, 341km

In Waitimo there are over 1,000 cave systems, formed when the tectonic plates pushed the limestone seabed upwards millions of years ago. Since then water has slowly tricked through the rock creating the caves. Out of approx 1,000 caves 300 have been mapped out and 23 are in commercial use, leaving some of the local farmers with small gold mines on their land. Everything ranging from walking tours to whats know as Black Water Rafting (white water rafting in the dark). The other attraction of the caves are their inhabitants, Glow Worms.

Now the term Glow Worm is a pretty marketing name, the worms are in fact maggots (fly larvae) of the Fungus Gnat which due to a lack of a backside burn their waste which creates the glow.

One of the Glow Worms had a very nice smile

We took a 2 hour caving tour though one of the tunnels, at times you could walk without head torches and rely on the light from the Glow Worms. The roof of the cave looked like a brilliant nights sky. Our guide probably bored from crawling through caves everyday sought every opportunity to play practical jokes on us and make us craw through the tightest spaces in the tunnel imaginable. At one point I really wished I had gone for the salad option more often in the past.

Whilst in the caves we visited the local spa

After emerging from the caves we headed South to Rotorua where we were greeted with the smell of sulphur, generated by the thermal springs the area is famous for

Highlights: All those little crap burning maggots