WE were a noisy group in the car driving to the famous Waitomo glow worm caves. The caves are located in the southern Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand, 12 km northwest of Te Kuiti.
This cave is about 2 hours south of Auckland, 1 hour south of Hamilton, and 2 hours west of Rotorua by car. The directions to the Caves said, to exit State Highway 3 onto Waitomo Caves Road and to continue on the road for about 8 km.
To we strangers in this foreign land, this was like Greek, since we were so used to asking directions when lost, but here there were no people, and so the car was filled with noise as we argued and debated all the routes till we found ourselves suddenly at the entrance of the caves.
The guide asked for silence, but it was a silence he was not going to get as the just disappearing feeling of being lost had been replaced by the joy of discovery. The noise continued as we lowered ourselves into the boat. The din continued though the guide told us that the glowworms needed quiet, but we were a noisy bunch, were we.
Suddenly in the darkness of the caves, the boat turned into a larger cave. The whole group looked up and suddenly there was a deafening silence: The silence of the stillness of the scene as a thousand glow worms lighted the roof of the caves, glowing ethereally, like a million stars!
Nobody had ever seen a scene like that ever before, and the silence in the boat was so loud it was deafening. You could have a heard a pin drop! How often nature stills us into silence with her beauty:
A crystal blue lake, a snow white peak, and today the shimmering glow of thousands of glowworms.How often we think, that it is excitement that will still the craving we have for contentment, when all that is required is a stilling of ourselves. It is not money, or a better job that will bring that sense of peace but just a few moments spent still. We left the caves, a quiet group. We carried with us the stillness of that cave which had more than satisfied our longing for peace and quietness.
It was the silence of stillness rather than the excitement of pleasure we have till now, as we remember the Waitomo caves and the glow that stilled our tongues and hearts last week! May that stillness be in all our hearts as time and again, nature gives us glimpses of heaven through quietness and silence..!
