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| This gorgeous rolling countryside in Waitomo covers an extensive system of caves with underground rivers! |
| Erin's Journal 01-18-03 New Zealand Today we had made reservations with an adventure company to go black-water rafting. This is where you go underground in the extensive cave network that exists under the scenic farmland in Waitomo, with varying levels of running water in the dark. My adventure was one of the least strenuous, as I was nervous enough about being in the water in the dark. That's actually one of my worst nightmares - being in cold rushing water in the dark...we saw a 'Moment of Impact' tv program showing race-boat crashes, and some of the on-board camera shots were freaking me out!!! So this adventure was something I only signed up for reluctantly. Call it peer pressure - even Glenn's mom was pushing, as she's done this before too! Glenn, meanwhile, signed up for a more exciting adventure which included abseiling. No thanks! Our appointments were late morning, so we had a leisurely breakfast and a little time to read in the sun before heading down the hill to the office. The hostel is perched on a slight hill, overlooking a scenic farming valley and the few buildings in the town of Waitomo, and our stay there was so nice and relaxing that we almost decided to stay an extra day! But we didn't want to give up a day in Bay of Islands, so we only stayed our 2 days in peaceful, lovely Waitomo. When we arrived at the office, we had to sign medical history cards which asked us about things like heart conditions, previous serious injuries (Glenn didn't know how serious they meant - he has torn apart just about every part of his body at some time, and didn't want to have to write a report for them), as well as pertinent stuff like claustrophobia. Then we had some time to wait before our guides would show up, so we took our room key up to the hostel and turned it in, so as not to carry it. Then we sat in the sun with a larger group, also waiting for my same adventure. They worked for PeopleSoft, a US company I know of, but were all stationed in Sydney and on assignment in Auckland for this year. They were on a teambuilding weekend, and were lots of fun. Our group left a little bit late, but there was a big group of us - 14, with 2 guides. We piled into a school bus for the 15 minute ride out to the cave, and disembarked at a barn where all the wetsuits, gum boots, and helmets were stored. We spent about 15 minutes getting suited up in the tight, wet, cold wetsuits, then donned white gum boots (rubber) and a helmet with a miner's light on it. Thus strangely clothed, we hiked another 10 minutes through several cowfields, with the poor confused cows staring and not sure whether to run from the strange spacepeople or not. Finally we arrived at the ladder down into the cave, and poor scared me got nudged to the front of the line!!! One guide went down first, then I squeezed into the tight little space and down into darkness on a slippery metal ladder. They'd activated my helmet light, so I could dimly see the water rushing away down into the dark, and the guide told me to follow the water about 50 meters until I found a pool with a measuring stick in it. So I picked my way through the dark, alone, till I found what he'd described, and waited for the group. When we were all assembled, I felt much better. The guides explained that the water levels in the caves rise and fall with the rain levels, so I was very glad it wasn't raining now! Then we were off, following the underground river and our crazy guides, who would rush ahead and set up an ambush to take a candid photo as we crawled through some tight spot or up a sharp bit of rocks. For the first hour or so, the water level didn't get much above thigh high on me, and I kept waiting for the inner-tubing part of the trip, as my adventure was named 'Tumu Tumu Toobing'. (We were in the TumuTumu Cave.) Finally we got to an intersection underground, and the guides decided to do something they normally don't, so they split the group in half, and took one off to do some 'team-building' thing, while the other half learned about the glow worms in the caves, then they would swap. I was in the learning group the first time, and we found that the glow worms, so beautiful to see in the dark with their pinpoints of blue light, are actually maggots with no anus, and the glowing material is their waste, produced to catch more food! Yummy! After what seemed like a really long time, the other group came shrieking back, covered in mud from neck to toe, and giggling madly. I was nervous to do this, as our guide had asked if anyone was claustrophobic and that if so, they may want to skip this. Well, I was the last one in our half group to trek up the side cave for this venture, and I heard everyone struggling and cursing ahead of me. The guy in front of me was somewhat chubby, and got wedged in a few times, slewing mud in my face as he got free. When it came to the first very tight spot (uphill on a slippery mud slide), it took a lot of effort for him to get up headfirst, and just as I was to follow, he was told to get himself turned around as the next section would be very bad to go headfirst (meaning deep, muddy water). I turned back, telling them I'd be with the other group till they returned! I felt like a wimp, but when they finally rejoined us, the rest of the group said they wished they'd joined me! It was a bunch of sliding around in muddy tight holes with water surprising you every so often. No thanks! Anyway, our group went on to a cavern with a lot of glow worms, and we turned all our helmets off so we could see better. Then we yelled really loudly to create sound waves, which woke up a whole lot more worms, as the lights suddenly tripled and parts of the ceiling that had been dark were suddenly covered in little blue spots. Cool! Finally we got to the tubing part. We all got in tubes - the guides wanted everyone to get up on this ledge and jump into the tube, but I just sat into mine and waited. Then they linked us up, one person's boots under the arms of the tuber in front, and we chain-floated down the river for a little while, gazing at the blue lights on the ceiling. Then the peace was over, and we were climbing and stumbling through stream currents and over sharp rock formations for another 40 minutes or so. Then we got to the swimming part (what??!), and we were told to swim without kicking our feet, as the boots would get lost at the bottom of the deep pool we were swimming across, and we'd have to dive down and try to find them amongst the eels (we only saw one the whole time, it's ok mom!). So we struggled across there, with truly cold water that was just above freezing temperature (only a little bit leaking into my wetsuit at the neckline - BRRRRR). No problem. There was one more short tubing section after that, which took us to the exit point of the caves. Luckily, no ladder this time! We emerged into the sunlight after almost 3 hours underground, all of us tired but happy. I had a good time! We trekked back up to the barn, where we peeled out of our wetsuits, boots and helmets, and did our best to rinse in the showers in the back rooms. Then we got dressed and hopped back on the bus. The horseback riding of the day before was starting to really kick in, and I could barely take myself up the short hill to the hostel when we got back, but as soon as I got in the room, Glenn knocked on the door. We shared stories of our adventures, then collapsed together for a nap. The evening was very relaxing, as we cooked a good meal and watched a couple of movies that were on tv downstairs. |
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| This view is actually from the Te Mata peak near the town of Napier, but shows some of the sweeping beauty of the countryside all over New Zealand's north island |