This Saturday, I went to explore the Waitomo Caves with friends Paul and Fiona (transferred here from Scotland around the same time I did) and Mike (just arrived from Canada). I just found out that this is #14 on the 101 must-do things in New Zealand. The caves are about a 2.5 hour drive from Auckland. We heard about this from some of the other expats who have already tried it. We signed up through a company called The Legendary Blackwater Rafting Co. and did the Black Abyss tour (2 guides and about 8 people per tour). This was great. We were going to have to abseil down into the cave which is basically when you are harnessed to a rope and using pressure on a trigger thing, you control how fast you descend straight down. We did a little practice on a hillside, but I was still pretty nervous before stepping off the edge. Once I saw that the rope held though, I wasn't as nervous and was able to enjoy the 100 ft. descent down into the limestone caves. It got to be pretty close quarters about a third of the way down so it's a good thing I'm not too claustrophobic, but it opened up a lot once inside.
Once we got to the bottom, it was really cool. The cave used to be the bed of the ocean so there were fossilized shells all over the place. We had these helmets with lights on them in order to see but we had to turn the lights off for the next bit. We had to harness in to a zip line to get further down into the cave. They call it a flying fox here but is basically when you strap on to a cable and slide down. It was a cool thing to do in the dark but not as exciting as the abseiling.
Once we were down to the bottom of the cave, we had innertubes that we would use to float around in the underground rivers. We grabbed on to the innertubes and jumped about 15 feet into the ice-cold cave water. Fortunately, we had thick wetsuits but until they started to work, it was ridiculously cold for a couple of minutes. I warmed up, but there were a couple from Brazil on the tour that were cold the whole time. Anyway, once we had all jumped in, we started to float up the river a bit paddling and using ropes to pull us along. Once we got to a certain point, we all shut off our headlights and just floated along looking at the beautiful glow-worms that covered the ceiling of the cave. The glow-worms themselves are really tiny but they give off an iridescent bluish green light that makes it seem as if you are looking up at the stars - quite amazing really.
After a bit of the floating along, we headed back to do some hiking downriver through the cave. The water here was more shallow and we were able to walk along for the most part but had to swim a bit. We saw more fossils, stalactites and stalagmites, and even a fossilized whale bone that was embedded in the rocks.
After a nice hot orange juice and chocolate from the guides, we continued our hike and this is when they pointed out an eel in the water. It was pretty gross but only about a foot long so I made the mistake of asking if they grew any bigger. I shouldn't have asked. I found out that they grow well over 6 feet long and live in a lot of the deep water that we were rafting in. In fact, there is a big one about 6 feet long called "Gollum" that lives in the pool that we originally jumped into. Anyway, we were on our way out and nobody was attacked by a giant eel so things were OK.
We had the choice to exit the cave the easy way or the hard way so of course we chose the hard way. This way ended up being a lot of fun but pretty tough as we had to free-climb up waterfalls that were dumping water on us the entire time. The waterfalls were only maybe 15 feel high but it was still pretty challenging and a lot of fun. After three of these waterfalls and about 3 hours of exploring underground, we made it out into the daylight again. This was a great trip and definitely recommended. The guides were able to take a few pictures - check them out below:
Practicing abseiling on the hillside before the real thing
Me beginning my descent into the cave
This is the jump into the river that we had to do. I don't think that's me but it gives you an idea.
Me floating along in my innertube unaware of the giant eels that were probably below me.
Here's a picture of the glowworms although it does no justice to how cool they really looked.
This was what a lot of the cave looked like as we were hiking through.
We were supposed to take a picture doing something goofy so I was strangling the Canadian - it looks a bit more like we are gazing at each other, but don't get any wrong ideas.
Me exiting the cave after climbing up the last waterfall.
Group picture after the tour was over.
