Submitted by Kenneth Rosenberg on the 2017 winter session program in New Zealand sponsored by the Department of Computer and Information Sciences…
We recently had several days to explore New Zealand on our own. I put together a trip to Aukland for eleven of us including a stop at the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves which is an extremely sacred place for the Mauri people that has only recently been returned to their control. The larger group had one encounter with the Mauri culture when we visited Willowbank, but this seemed to be contrived for tourists. We toured a miniature version of a Marae and watched and participated in a traditional Haka Dance. It was enjoyable for us all, but it didn’t seem sacred in any way. The caves were a different story.
We were instructed that photography would not be tolerated and that anyone caught attempting it would be removed from the tour. This is for several reasons, but the main one being that the glow worms could be nearly completely wiped out by a single camera flash. The caves themselves are incredibly earthquake resistance as a result of the porous limestone formations. This means that parts of this cave have been accumulating for hundreds of thousands of years. The Mauri people believed the cave so sacred that no one was allowed to enter. It was only decades after its discovery that this rule was relaxed and the glow worms were discovered at the bottom.
Our tour guide, Uncle Trev, detailed the sacred history of the cave and allowed one of our tour guests to sing in the cave’s cathedral At the base of the cave, we were escorted into a boat and required to remain completely silent. Uncle Trev then used a series of mounted ropes to pull the boat silently around the cave so that we could view the incredible light display of the mosquito larvae (glow worms). The only pictures I have are from the exit where it is safe to photograph. You can see some of the rock formations and Uncle Trev walking gracefully back into the cave about the boat. I value this experience and I think it prepares me well for our upcoming visit to a real Marae on Wednesday.
