Day 3. Glow Worms!

Today we drove to Waitomo where they have a bunch of limestone caves. Inthe caves they have glow-worms (see website). Not actually worms, but the larva stage of a kind of fly that lives in the caves. The larva has a chemiluminescence deal going on at the end of it's tail. They grow on the ceilings of caves that rivers in them and produce these long sticky (12inches or so) tentacle-like transparent things that hang down. Looks like something from the movie Aliens. The idea is that other insects find themselves in the caves, and then fly to the lights. They get caught in the glow worm tentacles and eaten. We took a tour through the cave where the pile you in a boat and you float down the underground river in these huge rooms with glowing green worms all over the ceilings. Pretty weird and cool.
-Dave