Waitomo Caves, more glow worms, an eel, a pig and a carcass?

The area around Waitomo Town is famous for its caves. Some are on public land and some are on private land where you need a guide to go in. We scheduled a tour for a “raft” trip inside one of the private caves for 2 days later.

We started our first morning driving out to a hike I found on my hiking app. As it turned out, there was a waterfall, Marokopa Falls, just a few miles beyond where my hike was so Terri decided we should go there first. We at first had dismissed this hike thinking the distance on the curvy roads was not worth it, we were wrong.

Marokopa Falls, this hike, like many of our hikes, we encountered no one else on the trail or at the falls.

We had seen a sign showing Piripiri Caves and decided to explore.

Entering Piripiri Caves, no warning signs, no lights, it would never work in the US.
This cave was less than 1/2 mile from the road.
Britzy, waiting patiently for us.

Safely out of the caves, we headed to my original hike. Odd, but there were hundreds of shoes hanging on the fence and sign for our turnoff to the hike.

Why shoes? Who would do that?
Just a little creepy and it was Halloween Eve.

The road ended up being gravel, very narrow and with the recent rains there were large muddy puddles of indeterminate depth. A little risky in low-slung Britzy. The hike I originally planned was too far in so I chose a different one – mistake.

Just a few yards up the trail we discovered this animal carcass. Terri quickly decided that we should head back closer to civilization.

Once back in civilization, we were advised to visit the public Waitomo Caves: they were awesome! But, since we had not gotten in our hiking mileage for the day, I parked a couple of miles from the caves parking lot and we walked a trail. All was great when we started, sunshine puffy clouds, so, no rain poncho needed -mistake. By our return, we and especially me, we’re soaked from the rain and walking through tall wet grass while being snickered at by the cows.

Having dried out mostly, we walked to a local restaurant that was recommended to us, Tomo Restaurant. It did not disappoint.

It’s always a special occasion when we go out to eat, as most meals are at Britzy’s camping spot. Cosmopolitan, “light on the cranberry juice please,” perfect!
Brisket burger and hot stone 3 meat trio! You cook your on this one very hot stone on your plate. This plus two rounds of drinks for $56US and no tipping required.

At one point I had ventured to the bar and upon my return I find a guy chatting-up Terri, (she adds good-looking too). Great! Then I find out that it was Terri who started chatting him up! He was nice guy, one of the rally racers in town. Then the bartender joined us for awhile and bought us a round of drinks. It was a great evening with good food and new friends.

The next morning was our guided cave tour, part of which was to be in a raft, but first we had to get around this gal.

She stood in the middle of the road until I stopped, then she sauntered around to my side of the car, then around to Terri’s side. Not sure what she wanted but I think there was about 200 pounds of bacon there.

The private cave tour was a lot of fun.

Ready.
Photos just don’t capture the magnitude of these little guys. It was really impressive in person especially since you are floating in a raft, complete darkness with the sound of a waterfall getting closer all the time. Our guide did turn us around before we went over the falls.
These sticky strings hang from the glowworms and catch flying insects.
The second part of the tour was in a dry cave.
Terri, petting a 4 foot eel in the stream outside the cave.

7 thoughts on “Waitomo Caves, more glow worms, an eel, a pig and a carcass?”

  1. So did you leave any shoes??? Terri could have left a dress like on the cruise…LOL
    You guys are finding some neat caves!! Thye look so cool….I don’t know about petting an eel tho…..that’s the creepy part to me. Keep the pics coming…..

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