One of New Zealand's most famous tourist attractions is celebrating 125 years of glow worms and caving.
The Waitomo Caves attracts more than 300,000 visitors every year, but there's more to Waitomo than tourism.
Huia Davis never tires of stepping into the magical underworld. He's the chief guide and still remembers what his first trip into the glow worm grotto was like.
"It was really a sense of being in space, and as you looked out it was like looking out into infinity," says Mr Davis.
The caves have always inspired a sense of wonder. Local Maori knew of them but were reluctant to enter as they believed taniwha lived there.
They weren't extensively explored until Davis' great-grandfather, Tane Tinorau, went in with explorer Fred Mace 125 years ago.
"I got a bit teary-eyed thinking back to how the guiding started," he says.
Now the explorers' courage is a source of pride for their descendants, a pride they display on special occasions because the discovery put Waitomo on the map.
The tourist dollars keep the small community going.
"It provides a lot of employment, not just the caves but also there's a lot of adventure tourism in the area."
That's because the cave is part of a network of at least 200 caves, and there are many more that haven't been discovered yet.
This is just the start of a nine-day celebration. There's more singing, star-gazing and even a grand ball to come. But the focus will be less on what's happening in the caves and more on the community that's been built around them.
3 News
source: newshub archive
