Half Around The World In 80 Days

By now I had gotten well used to being a solo traveller, but I would still occasionally miss the company of people I knew. Thus it was a delight to travel with some friends from Ireland for a few days. Aideen Curran is an acquaintance from college and work and she was on her annual work vacation along with her sisters Aisling and Karen. It was great not to have to do all the planning, navigating and driving by myself and it was good to have interesting people to converse with and share the enjoyment of travel.

Our first port of call once the Currans had overcome their jet lag was to the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves. The Waitomo region in the North Island has an abundance of caves and a myriad ways of exploring them. Our chosen activity was 'cave tubing' which is a million miles from the sedate Show Cave Tours in Ireland. After being collected by van in the tiny village of Waitomo we are driven miles and miles out into the wilderness. Here we get kitted up in wet-suits, Wellington boots, helmets, climbing ropes and black car inner tubes; I am getting an ominous feeling about what lies ahead. The entrance to the cave is down through a small opening in the middle of a cow paddock. Entering the cave involves a vertical rope abseil through fresh air to a flood swollen stream 25 metres below. Having survived that, we grab our inner tubes and wade upriver in the dim light of our helmet lamps after our guide. After a long trek we are instructed to quench our lights, then in the inky blackness the cave roof and walls come alive with the twinkling of glow worms. It is an enchanting scene and one could easily imagine that you were lying under the stars on a clear moonless night with the babbling of the underground rivulet in the background. This purpose of this glowing is to trap any insects who wander into the cave by mistake.

The next step in this adventure was to sit into our individual inner tubes, jump in the water and quench our lights. The stream then carried us downriver in the darkness with the faint light of the glow worms pointing the way. It is initially scary but then quite thrilling as you bob along, occasionally banging into the walls or having your butt hit the stream bed where the water is shallow. After drifting away down river past our original entry point, we leave the water to have some underground lunch and to clamber through some narrow side caverns to view the fantastic stalagmites and stalactites. After this there is a long hike back upriver to where we began.

Now if you abseil 25 metres down into a cave it stands to reason that you will wave to climb 25 metres to get back to the surface. This climb was on a reasonably steep and slippery rock face but we all get out alive. Back in the world above, we find that the rain has been bucketing down incessantly all day, so maybe it was a good day to spend in the underworld. This was a great way to see caves and is yet another example of the Kiwi's desire to turn everything into an adventure sport.

The Irish Underground kitted out for action featuring (L to R) Pat, Karen, Aisling, Aideen

I hang on for dear life before dropping into the abyss