Glow Worms!

Today I thought I would share some of the beautiful places we have had the opportunity of visiting and experiencing while in this country. In our travels, and during our preparation days, we have had the chance to “stop and smell the roses” a few times and, as Dr. Sues said, “Oh my, the things you will see!”

One of our latest little adventures was to visit a Glow Worm cave. I didn’t even know there really were such things before coming to New Zealand! There are so many unique things in this world and it is so fun to discover ones you have never come across before.

Our Zone Conference held on Friday, May 25th, was at was at 10:00 A.M. at the Kamo chapel in Whangarei. All missionaries in the Northland Zone attended the zone conference at the Whangarei Stake center. A fabulous lunch was prepared by Sister Semenoff and her team in the Whangarei Stake.

As usual, the teaching was very good and came from Preach My Gospel. I must say again that President Walker is a very good teacher and the missionaries respond extremely well to him. I always learn from him even though he thinks John and I already know all the answers. I learned this one day when I raised my hand to answer a question he presented to the missionaries! When no one came up with an answer I shook my hand at him. He wagged his finger at me and said, “Sister Ashby, I know you know all the answers! I want one of the young missionaries to answer me!” Well, that shut me up, and I do not raise my hand anymore! Little does he know that I do NOT know all the answers! Do we ever know all the answers? That is what learning for your whole life is all about!

One thing that impressed me the most in our teaching today was how important it is to learn the right order and sequence of teaching the gospel to new investigators. We teach by the spirit, but need to know ahead of time what things to talk about first, and the order to teach the rest of our doctrine in.

It was another wonderful Zone Conference and after the senior office couples did their presentations after lunch, we took off with two of the couples to do some sight seeing, and spend the night in The Bay of Islands. Friday night and Saturday days are a good time to take our Preparation day, and we do it if we don’t have any Saturday appointments, and can spend some time with the other senior missionaries. Seniors are allowed to do this and I guess you could say it is one of the perks of going on a mission when you are older!

On our way to our Hotel in Paihia, we stopped to visit some Glow Worm caves! The caves are located in the country in an area called Kawiti.

This writing was on the cave information site:

“The Kawiti Caves are owned and operated by the Kawiti family.

Your 30 minute guided tour will follow a wooden boardwalk through a 200 metre limestone cave system. Once inside, you will see thousands of glow worms spread across the ceiling surrounded by breath taking stalactites and stalagmites.

As you enjoy the galaxies of glow worms above, your friendly guide will explain the life cycle of the New Zealand Glow worm (Arachnocampa Luminosa) and the intricate webs used to catch their prey. You’ll even get close enough to see the actual body of the glow worm and its stunning blue/green tail light, before you make the return bushwalk through a natural corridor of karst rock formations and pristine rainforest.”

I found our later that the Kawiti family tribe has owned this cave for 400 years! It was part of their Maori tribe land. A long time ago the wife of a neighboring chief ran away from her tribe and came on to the Kawiti lands to hide. She found the cave and moved in! She found a large ledge inside and carved steps out of the stone to reach the alcove where she then hid and lived for a couple of years. At night she would go out and steal food from the fields of the Kawiti tribe to live on. Eventually the Kawiti caught her and felt sorry for her. They let her stay there and would give her food. However, one day the woman’s husband learned where his lost wife was and told the Kawiti Chief that if they did not give her back they would go to war with them and kill the Kawiti people. The chief was a woman at that time and she would not risk that. She gave the wife back and they never heard about her again. Ever since those days the Kawiti family have owned and protected this cave.

(Personally, I think that Chief must have been very mean and abusive for his wife to run away and be willing to live in a cave with poisonous glow worms and Weta bugs!)

I never really knew what Glow Worms were before, but now I do! They are about as long as a match stick and turn on a little light at the end of their body. It glows brighter when attracting prey, like spiders, mosquitoes, flys, etc. They spin a strand of silk that drops a few inches below them. This strand looks like little crystal beads, and a fly is stuck in it if it barely touches it. The worm then hauls the strand up and devours it’s prey. It can last for three weeks, on a mosquito, without eating again. They spin several of these strands along the length of their body and it takes about four hours to make a new strand after they have pulled one up to enjoy their dinner. They stay mostly on the roof of the cave and look like thousands of tiny stars. They live on the roof because during the night, little creatures called Weta bugs, come charging into the caves by the hundreds to feed on the glow worms. They look like cockroaches the size of a man’s hand, and if they bite a human it is bad! However, they have trouble climbing the slick stalagmite/stalactite walls without sliding down before they get to the Glow Worms.

A Glow worm lives about 11 months. They start out as eggs and then go into the larvae stage. As a worm they are sticky and attach to the walls or ceiling. During the last three weeks of their lives they come out of the worm stage and turn into fly’s. They then live for three weeks and during this time they mate and the female lays her eggs in the same spot she hatched in. The worms are territorial and keep a small distance away from each other. If one of the Glow Worm flys touch a crystal strand of another worm, then yep, they get eaten! So I guess you could say they are cannibals! Frankly, I think they are pretty smart!

One other thing….those little chain-like strands the Glow worms drop down to catch their prey with, are terribly poisonous to humans. If you touch a strand and put your hand to your mouth, with only a tiny speck touching your lips or tongue, your throat will swell within seconds and you will stop breathing long before anyone can help you! Yep, dead! I was paranoid about accidentally touching one of them before we got out of the cave!

By the way, the boardwalk we walked on had sink holes under it as deep as four kilometers! The cave was beautiful but a place to be very careful when in it!

70% of the world’s Glow Worms are in New Zealand. 30% are in Australia!

Oh yes, I have no pictures of the Glow worms because a flash from a camera makes the worms all turn their lights off! However, these pictures are just outside the cave.

Ashby’s, Sister Bartlett, Sister Woodard, Elder Woodard and Elder Bartlett. This gives you a glimpse of the beautiful trees and greenery in this country.

The entrance to the cave. We each carried little red lanterns to light our way. The light shines downward and does not make the glow worms go dark.

Our Watiti guide and his wife.

Beautiful scenery around here!

After this very interesting and fun side-trip, we drove to the Bay of Islands where we spent the night at the Kingsgate Hotel. It is a very nice place right across the street from the bay. We were all hungry and had dinner in the hotel. We loved visiting with each other. We don’t get much opportunity to visit with adults and friends who are also serving here from America. We all have a lot in common and end up with a lot to share. There are many outdoor tables and eating places but tonight we were just glad to be out of the weather and eating inside! It was rainy an cold and we were tired, but so thankful for a wonderful day of instructions and then site-seeing.