After meeting the tour guide at 0630, we drove to the Ruakuri Cave area. On the way we drove through a wonderful, hilly area that had lots of sheep and cattle farms.
The Ruakuri caves are formed by water flowing through a limestone formation. First we walked around the top through hills, tunnels, and potholes made by collapsed caves. The forest is very thick and somewhat primordial looking.
As we were hiking, we saw people in wetsuits with inner tubes coming out of a cave. Apparently you can float through the cave in the river. Once we got into the cave we saw them floating through the cave below our feet.
Then we took a cave tour. The tour was well done and there were many interesting formations. The entrance was a long circular ramp (this is the only cave that is wheelchair friendly).
The most interesting part of the tour was the Glow worms. These are critters that in their larva stage attach themselves to the ceiling and spin out a sticky thread. They then create a glow in the dark like a firefly to attract insects which get stuck in the thread and then eaten. Each dot in the picture is a glow worm with a thread hanging from it like in the second picture.
We then drove to the Totara forest walk and bird sanctuary where we heard a number of rare birds and got to see a Tui bird. These are the largest Totara trees on the island.
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