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We go down the 120' hole. I spun around, with my back to the wall, so I could look up and down during the descent...
11:38pm, Eco Lodge hostel, New Plymouth
I was surprised to be able to keep sleeping til 8:30am this morning, after rising before 7am each morning so far. I tried some muesli for breakfast, and we were packed and out the door at 10:10am. Our rafting trip wasn't until 11am, so we visited the Waitomo Caves museum for ~20 minutes. Waitomo means "Enter Water", which is appropriate since the caves are flowing with water.
At "The legendary black water rafting company" headquarters, we changed into full body wet suits, and rode a bus for ~10 minutes towards the cave opening. Our guide told us not to pee in the wet suit, cause on the bus ride home, people will start complaining about the smell, and then there's one person who says, "I don't smell anything", and then it's awkward. Our guide had great delivery…
This opening was a vertical hole ~120' straight down into the ground. Our descent would be via "abseil", which is similar to repelling. Our group of 8 practiced abseiling on a nearby hill, before one by one "dropping down the rabbit hole" into the dark cave. When I reached the bottom, one of the other cavers told me to look up. I saw my first glow-worms! They were very bright, like stars in the sky. Our 2 guides were great and entertaining.
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We go down the 120' hole. I spun around, with my back to the wall, so I could look up and down during the descent...
A few minutes into the cave, we hooked our harness into a zipline and slid down into an open cavity in the darkness. We stopped at a landing above a river. where we rested and snacked on a tasty honey granola bar and hot chocolate. Next up was the crux of the adventure: jumping off a 10' cliff into the river, and landing butt first (sitting position) while holding an inner tube underneath. One by one we jumped into the dark water, resulting in a loud crash, like garbage can lids smashing together, echoing in the cave. I'm a wimp when it comes to jumping into a pool, but I landed successfully. Wendy popped off of the inner tube when she landed in the water, but quickly recovered. We then started floating down an underground river, pulling a fixed rope along the limestone walls to help propel ourselves. Tons of glow worms covered the ceiling and walls, illuminating the river.
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We sit on the edgo of a rock, having a snack. Notice the glow worms in the background. Then it was time for the jump into the river!
We then formed a chain, hooking feet into armpits, and paddled down a narrow channel. The ceiling was getting lower, and the glow worms were getting brighter. The glow worms reminding me of being in a Disneyland ride. Kind of like the stars in the old Peter Pan ride, or Snow White ride. Bright greenish large LEDs. At the end of the channel, we paused and could see the silky strands falling from the worms, which are used to catch the insects attracted by their light. Glow worms only exist in caves with water, since the insects they feed on are carried in on the streams.
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We then self paddled back up the channel to where we had jumped off the cliff. After leaving our inner tubes, we began a long hike through the cave, wading (and sometimes swimming briefly) through water, and squeezing through some narrow openings. We had another snack break with chocolate and hot tang. I was pretty warm in my tight wet suit, but some others were shivering. The finale was a scramble up and over two waterfalls before emerging into the day light.
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For our grand exit, we climbed over a couple waterfalls. Helped to have some experience bouldering at the gym...
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Then it was time to exit the cave, after over 2.5hrs in the cave. I noticed they were taking a pic of each of us as we popped out, so I trailed Wendy closely, to get a pic together...
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Thumbs up after an awesome blackwater & glow worm experience! We would HIGHLY recommend the trip to anyone building a New Zealand itinerary...
Back at the headquarters, we showered, and had bagels with tomato soup. We bought a copy of the pics for $20NZ.
It was time to head towards our next hostel, in New Plymouth (population ~50,000), a 2.5hr drive from Waitomo Caves, located on the coast, and not too far from Mt Taranki (Mt Egmont), our destination tomorrow. It started raining briefly on our drive. We stopped at a fruit stand along the way and bought a fresh blueberry/lemon muffin. After checking into our BBH hostel, we headed into town and browsed restaurants, deciding on a tapas place called Frederick's. The lamb rib cutlets with green herb mint sauce, persian chicken kabobs, pumpkin/spinach wontons with a yogurt sauce, and scallops with chorizo were great. The scallops were really tender and included the "foot".
A tunnel during the drive, and dinner at Frederick's pub in New Plymouth...
After dinner we shopped at a Pak n' Save (king of like a Super Walmart), and then went to a fantastic festival of lights in the town park ~10pm. It was again reminiscent of a Disney theme park, with music and colorful lights. Quite an impressive summer attraction New Plymouth has, and it's free.
The colors were magical, and I was lost in Wonderland...
Trippy... So many areas to explore too. Totally felt like a forest in Alice In Wonderland. I felt like I needed to watch out for Mome Raths...
More glowing bugs, and glowing orbs handing over a bridge...
We spent 30 minutes walking around, and found Santa when we left. With all the summer weather, I had forgot that Christmas was only 12 days ago, and that today was Three Kings Day, oh yeah, and also my birthday!
Rain tomorrow. Might spoil our plans to hike around Mt. Egmont. Had some more of the wierd egg cake back at the hostel.
Wow, sure feels like we've done a lot for only being here 4 days...