Over the past year, Auckland-based photographer Shaun Jeffers writes on Bored Panda that he's been "back and forth to Waitomo's Ruakuri Cave to master the art of photographing these magnificent little creatures." And these creatures are glowworms, which emit a phosphorescent light that turns the caves in the Waitomo area into incredible natural light installations.

Travelers can take a floating tour inside the caverns, but the technicolor tones of the bioluminescent creatures are notoriously hard to capture on film. But Jeffers did it. 

"Photographing glow worms is very similar to shooting the night sky," he adds, "however the exposure time can be much longer. These images in particular range between 30 seconds and 6 minutes exposures. To achieve the shots, it required me to submerge myself and my tripod in cold water for up to 6-8 hours a day – it was totally worth it!"

The result is a series of images that will give you ultimate wanderlust!