Waitomo Caves

Waitomo Caves is a limestone cave system on the North Island of New Zealand, near the town of Waitomo in the Waikato region, carved into a thick Oligocene-to-Miocene marine limestone that was uplifted and then slowly dissolved by underground drainage over roughly the last two million years. The caves are best known for the Glowworm Grotto, where the ceiling and walls host dense colonies of the bioluminescent larvae of Arachnocampa luminosa, a fungus gnat found only in New Zealand, whose glowing threads mimic a night sky and attract the small insects the larvae feed on. The cave system was first explored and mapped in 1887 by local Maori chief Tane Tinorau together with English surveyor Fred Mace, and it has been open to visitors since 1889, making it one of New Zealand's longest-running tourist attractions.