New Zealand: Waitomo Glowworm Caves
(Disclaimer: I had to include some promotional pictures that the company put on our photo CD because there were some that showed things that we did that they didn't take pictures of us...but just imagine our faces on the people in the promo pictures and you'll see exactly where we were and what we did!)
Friday morning, we were up early yet again (much to our aching muscles protests) and after grabbing flat whites at the local cafe, we were on the road again. As we headed north, we were again amazed at how green and beautiful the New Zealand countryside is...it’s amazing!
Before long, we arrived in Waitomo, more specifically, at the Long Black Cafe to meet up with our Black Water Rafting guides who would be taking us through the Waitomo caves.
They had us change in to wet suits and then outfitted us with helmets and harnesses.
After posing for a few pics, they loaded us into a van and off we went.
When we arrived at the entrance to the caves, they started by training us in abseiling (repelling) by going up and down a rope on the side of the hill. We learned how to control the speed of our decent and how to stop quickly. We also learned how to alert the guides if we accidently let go and started to fall--scream bloody murder!
After a little bit more instruction on how to descend in to the cave and a reality check that we would be abseiling down 37 m--the height of an 11-story building or just over 120 ft, we were ready to go. One by one, we lowered ourselves in to the caves...
Once we all reached the bottom alive, one guide went ahead while we regrouped and started to make our way over, under, and around the rocks of the caves...as we walked, we could start to see small greenish-blue dots on the ceiling of the cave above us...glowworms! Eventually our remaining guide stopped us just before the floor dropped away and we could see another group in the rushing water 40+ feet below us making their way through the cave water. Before we could wonder how we were going to make it down to the water, our guide had us hooked up to a zip line and we were shooting across the abyss in complete blackness (they had everyone turn out the lights on their helmets) with no way to control your speed and no way of knowing when you were going to stop. As we rushed across the gap one by one, we could look up and see the glowworms covering the ceiling and walls of the cave all around us. Luckily, the guide that had gone ahead was at the other side of the zipline was there to get us off of the zipline (once we had come to a crashing halt and bounced around in the dark for a second or two) and we sat against the wall waiting for the rest of the group to join us.
After we were all together again, we sat on a ledge looking down at the black rushing water, still a good 15+ feet below us, while our guides poured us hot chocolate and gave us cookies to warm us up and give us a bit of energy for the next part of our trip. Once we’d finished, we were each given a black inner tube and told that the only way into the water was to jump! We leapt out over the water and dropped the 15+ ft into the 14 deg Celsius water.
We had to again regroup once we were all in the water and we began to paddle our way upstream, the lights from our helmets bouncing of the cave walls as we made our way along a rope further into the caves. Once the guides felt we had gone far enough, we all linked our inner tubes together by holding on to the feet of the person behind us and turned off all of the lights on the helmets. We floated along through the caves, looking up at twinkling blue-green lights of the glowworms...it was beautiful! At this point, one of our guides decided to inform us a little bit more about what glowworms actually are...they not worms at all, but the maggot larvae of an insect. The glow that we see is created by a chemical reaction between a protein and an enzyme in their excrement...so really what we’re oohing and ahhing over is glowing maggot poo! He then went on to explain that when these larvae eventually hatch, they are extra-large mosquito-looking bugs that are born with no mouth and no stomach, but an overactive sex drive. He told us that the males do nothing but have sex with the females for 12 hours at a time...much like the average Kiwi male, he added! Then they die and after the female lays about 120 eggs, she dies too. After knowing all of this, it’s no wonder that it’s easier to market them as cute little glowworms!
Once we’d floated down through the water for bit, we dropped off our inner tubes and began to walk (stumble!) our way through the cave.
We went over small water falls, tripped over multiple rocks, and were swimming through parts where the water was over our heads. Finally, the guides stopped us again and we were given cups of hot Tang and pieces of dark chocolate--a much needed snack and warmth at this point!
We were then told that in order to get out of the cave, we would have to free rock climb (no harness!) over two waterfalls before we would reach the surface. With much needed instruction from our guides, we were able to climb up and over the waterfalls and eventually make our way out of the caves.
We posed for one last group picture (a survivor’s shot) and then we were back to the van to head back to the cafe. Once back, we took hot showers and then helped ourselves to toasted bagels and tomato soup while the pictures from our adventure downloaded. Finally, we said good-bye to the other members of our group (it was really a bonding experience for us all by the time it was all over!) and we were off to Auckland.
We reached our hostel in Auckland, made ourselves some dinner, and were soon ready for bed. This was easily one of the best things we’ve done thus far during this vacation, so Sydney will have a lot to live up to tomorrow!
More from the Land Down Under Later!
Jess and Erin
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