green glowing butts

The fascinating enzyme 'luciferase', sometimes used my genetic researchers to pinpoint gene activity, is also responsible for the spellbinding spectacle on the roof of the Waitomo Caves.

I spent this morning floating down a stream in a raft looking at the glowing worms above... feeling like I was outside looking at a starlit sky, except for the edges of the roof when I could almost touch them.

Which is somewhat gross, as their feeding trap is strings of mucous which snare insects to be reeled in. Somewhat like fishing with a spiderweb.

The second cave I went through was less glow-wormy, more limestone formations. The forms were beautiful, but I have been to so many caves now, the highlight for me was actually a ~1000 year old skeleton of the now extinct moa.

The entire region is shaped by the former seabed limestone layers, which are so perfect and even it looks like fortifications in many places. Then a sheep runs in front of it, and spoils my imaginings ;)

A fascinating change from the thermal wonders and boiling mud of Roturua. I cannot wait to show photos!