Ngarua Caves

The Ngarua Caves are just outside of Abel Tasman National Park and the tour was well worth it! We went down into the dry cave which has all sorts of beautiful stalactites and stalagmites and other water-created formations. The guide told us about how the moa and kiwi bones were from creatures unfortunate enough to fall into a pothole and remain trapped in a cave with no vegetation or food sources. It reminded me of a Gothic cathedral. At the end, she turned off all the lights so we could experience pitch black (which is hard to do anywhere nowadays). This was an unexpected highlight of our trip!

moa bones

kiwi bones

 

these are the straw stalactites, and they totally do look like straws

this one is a large calcium stalactite with people's signatures