Stars of the Caves

By Mary

A few weeks ago in Waitomo we went to glow worm caves. Most of it was a tour into a dripping limestone cave and then a quiet boat ride to see the worms. If you got a drip of water on your head, it's good luck. Water dripped on me two times.
Glow worms are a larva of an insect called gnats. Glow worms also go fishing like us, except they hang from the roof of the cave and create a line of sticky mucous to catch insects.

Yesterday we went to the Abby Caves near Whangeri. We hiked to the caves but this time there were no tour guides, stairs or lights. I climbed down into two very steep, slippery caves. We used flashlights but turned them off when we were inside. We couldn't see anything until our eyes got used to the dark. It was creepy.
The first cave I went in didn't have a lot of glows in it. It only had two that we could see. There was running water at the bottom of the cave, so we had to step on wobbly rocks.
When we went to the other cave, there were millions of them! Eric and I touched a net of sticky mucous and saw glow worms.
We turned around for one last glimpse of the sparkling stars of the cave.