The next cave that we visited is called Aranui Cave, which is just a short drive from Ruakuri Cave. It has a natural cave entrance and is the smallest and most delicate of Waitomo's three main caves.
As a dry cave without a river running through it, it houses very little life past its entrance.
However, the cave has the most beautiful collection of stalactites, stalagmites, flowstones and decorative formations.
As the tour guide understood that most of the people in the group had already visited other caves earlier, he would not want to repeat the same "education" again. As such, he allowed us to roam freely in the cave and take as many photos as we wanted.
Aranui Cave is really a magical, mystical place that is steeped in Maori myth and legend. The high chambers, magnificent limestone formations and the pale brown, pink and white shades of the huge stalactites in the Aranui Cave are truly spectacular.
Though the tour guide was not doing much narration of the cave for us, he was busy helping us to take photos.
Some history of this cave. In November 1910, a young Maori, Ruruku Aranui was chasing wild pigs that had strayed into a local reserve. His dog chased a pig down a steep hill and the pig suddenly disappeared and so too did the dog. The dogs barking led Ruruku to a small hole in the side of the hill. He then crawled inside and with a match found them both in a high chamber that continued into the darkness.
We spent about 30 minutes roaming freely in this beautiful cave.
On our way out to the car park, we saw a group of people carrying rubber tubes to the below station. It seemed like they just came out from black water rafting in a cave.
We had a short break in our car before driving off to Waitomo Glowworm Cave, the most popular among all the caves in the region.
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