Fascinated by the magical beauty of the firefly cave in New Zealand

Thousands of glowing fireflies make the entrance to the Waitomo Glowworm cave magical, looking like a sparkling starry sky.

Waitomo Glowworm Cave is located in the town of Waitomo (New Zealand), is part of a system of 3 caves including Waitomo, Ruakuri and Aranui. It was first discovered in 1887 by Tane Tinorau – the Maori patriarch and Fred Mace – the British investigator.

The Maori people have known about the existence of caves for a long time. However, the underground caves were never widely explored until Tane and Fred went to investigate. The two made a raft out of flax tree trunks, then, holding candles and torches in hand, went into the cave together.

Inside the Waitomo Glowworm, they were amazed to see the sparkling light emanating from the fireflies perched on the ceiling of the cave. Going deeper in the direction of an embankment, the two were even more surprised because they discovered dense and chit limestone layers in the cave.

Fred and Tane were so excited by the unexpected discovery of this majestic cave that they returned several times to continue their exploration. During a solo trip, Tane found the upper entrance of the Waitomo Glowworm. It is known that this is the main entrance of the cave today.

In 1889, patriarch Tane began to open the cave door for the purpose of serving tourists to visit. In 1906, the New Zealand government officially took over the ownership of the cave and promoted this place as a tourist destination not to be missed when arriving in this country.

Located at a depth of more than 40m underground, over a long period of time affected by nature, Waitomo Glowworm cave gradually formed stalactites with diverse shapes. Stalactites become more and more splendid under the magical sparkling light.

The reason the scene inside this cave is as brilliant as the starry sky is because there are thousands of fireflies living in the dark conditions of the cave. This species of firefly has the scientific name Arachnocampa Luminosa and is found only in New Zealand.

When living in a cave, the fireflies will release silk, nest on the ceiling and hang themselves on thin silk threads, then emit a special light that is blue with a little green, not green. yellow like common fireflies.

This color is given off by chemicals in their tails that react with oxygen to form. Fireflies glow with the purpose of attracting prey but accidentally create a “unique” natural wonder in the world.