Waitomo
The rain continued as we set off for Waitomo. We stopped for coffee but made decent time to arrive in Waitomo. The area is known for the popular Waitomo Caves - there are a number of caves found in the limestone rock of the Waitomo district. I checked into the YHA hostel before walking down into the village to book some cave based activities.
I originally decided that I wanted to do Tumu Tumu Toobing (Black Water Rafting) and The Lost World Expedition with Waitomo adventures as I had a discount voucher from doing the Sky Jump. Each company operates different caves and unfortunately there had been so much rain that the Waitomo Adventures caves were flooded and only one company was operating rafting that day. I went to see the company and booked up for the rafting later that day and went back and booked the Lost World for early next morning at 7am. I got a free ticket to go to the cave museum so decided to look around there till my rafting at 3pm. The museum was dull but I did learn about the glow worms - one of the few creatures to live down in the caves.
It continued raining hard and I headed back to start the rafting - unfortunately there was bad news as their cave had finally flooded (which very rarely happens - typical!) and it was called off. I was able to re-schedule for next day at midday which would still give me time to catch the Magic Bus on to Rotorua at 3pm. I was left with the problem of what to do instead - Waitomo is a small village with nothing going on so a few of us decided to check out the pub. It was freezing in the pub and they had no fire wood plus the kitchen was closed so we all headed back to the hostel. I ended up watching TV for the first time in months (CSI Miami which was pretty good). I also got a phone call at the Hostel from Waitomo adventures - at first I thought it was another cancellation but they said the cave water was extremely high and was at the base of a ladder we would need to climb - they were pretty confident the cave would drain but asked if I could do it later instead of at 7am - I explained about the rafting and they said we could try it at 8am so I'd be back for the rafting at 12.
I got up bright and early next morning ready to start my action packed day. The guide was waiting for me as I was the only one doing the first Lost World trip. We drove out to the cave system and met a caver who had just been down to check the water levels - he gave the OK to go but said there was still a lot of water down in the caves. We got geared up and walked out to the descent which took you to the entrance of the cave in the middle of farmland. The descent was so deep that the shaft was full of mist. After a short practice securing the safety harness I had to use to secure myself to the safety ropes when walking in slippy or dangerous parts of the cave, I was attached to the abseiling equipment. I abseiled with the guide 100m down to the cave entrance.
The abseiling was harder to do than I expected because 100m of wet rope is quite heavy. We were down by the stream at the bottom of the shaft at the cave entrance within about 10 minutes. It was pretty amazing to look back up the rope and see where you had just come from. I continued into the caves with the guide along the side of a fast flowing stream - he said that it was probably one of the highest water levels he had seen the stream reach. We switched on our flashlights and climbed into the caves - because of the higher water levels we had to climb a bit higher away from the normal path. We went into a dark area at the back of the cave and sat down - when we switched off our helmet lights I saw that the roof of the cave was covered with glow worms - it was like looking up at a stary sky. We went back into the cave and then I had to climb a 30m ladder - this was difficult too as the ladder was wet and there was water dripping down onto my face if I looked up. Once at the top of the ladders we were in the upper levels of the cave and there was a path and another series of ladders which we followed that took us past various rock formations before leading us out of the cave.
After a quick lunch stop it was time for the Black Water Rafting. The rest of the people doing the rafting turned out to be traveling on the Magic Bus, but were only stopping off on the way to Rotorua. We arrived at the cave site and a short walk took us to the entrance of the cave where we collected our rubber rings. We walked down ito the caves and waded through the water until it got deep enough to float the rings - unfortunately my rubber ring turned out to be a bit small for me and I kept tipping out and couldn't sit up straight. We had to form a line and you had to hold onto the Wellies of the person behind you. We then drifted on the river through the caves. We all turned out our lights and drifted along in the darkness - you had to be careful and push yourself away from rocks and the walls of the cave if you got too close (although as it was dark you usually hit them!). On the roof of the cave there were loads of glow worms which looked like a stary night sky - much more than I had seen on the Lost World tour - pretty impressive. The guides stopped us when the water level of the cave changed. You had to climb up and then fall off backwards into the river below off the falls holding onto your rubber ring. When everyone had made it down we got back into formation and turned out the lights again and drifted further into the caves. We reached another point where we had to climb out again as the water level changed again - this time you had to put the rubber ring around your waist and were moved down to a lower level. I liked this much better as we swam through the caves to the final obstacle - they had built a water slide in the cave. It was pretty scary as you could not see where the slide went to and there was a lot of water. The slide was really fast and when I hit the water below I drifted around a corner where I was met by another guide who made sure I was OK. The water level then dropped considerably and the guide directed me just to keep walking. I followed the stream through the caves - it seemed to go on for quite a while and I was starting to wonder if I'd missed a turning when a staircase came into view and I heard the voices of the rest of the group.
We headed out to the caves for hot showers and some soup - I then had to race back to the hostel to collect my stuff and I was the last to be picked up by the coach driver. The coach was packed and we headed off towards the next stop - Rotorua.
I originally decided that I wanted to do Tumu Tumu Toobing (Black Water Rafting) and The Lost World Expedition with Waitomo adventures as I had a discount voucher from doing the Sky Jump. Each company operates different caves and unfortunately there had been so much rain that the Waitomo Adventures caves were flooded and only one company was operating rafting that day. I went to see the company and booked up for the rafting later that day and went back and booked the Lost World for early next morning at 7am. I got a free ticket to go to the cave museum so decided to look around there till my rafting at 3pm. The museum was dull but I did learn about the glow worms - one of the few creatures to live down in the caves.
It continued raining hard and I headed back to start the rafting - unfortunately there was bad news as their cave had finally flooded (which very rarely happens - typical!) and it was called off. I was able to re-schedule for next day at midday which would still give me time to catch the Magic Bus on to Rotorua at 3pm. I was left with the problem of what to do instead - Waitomo is a small village with nothing going on so a few of us decided to check out the pub. It was freezing in the pub and they had no fire wood plus the kitchen was closed so we all headed back to the hostel. I ended up watching TV for the first time in months (CSI Miami which was pretty good). I also got a phone call at the Hostel from Waitomo adventures - at first I thought it was another cancellation but they said the cave water was extremely high and was at the base of a ladder we would need to climb - they were pretty confident the cave would drain but asked if I could do it later instead of at 7am - I explained about the rafting and they said we could try it at 8am so I'd be back for the rafting at 12.
I got up bright and early next morning ready to start my action packed day. The guide was waiting for me as I was the only one doing the first Lost World trip. We drove out to the cave system and met a caver who had just been down to check the water levels - he gave the OK to go but said there was still a lot of water down in the caves. We got geared up and walked out to the descent which took you to the entrance of the cave in the middle of farmland. The descent was so deep that the shaft was full of mist. After a short practice securing the safety harness I had to use to secure myself to the safety ropes when walking in slippy or dangerous parts of the cave, I was attached to the abseiling equipment. I abseiled with the guide 100m down to the cave entrance.
The abseiling was harder to do than I expected because 100m of wet rope is quite heavy. We were down by the stream at the bottom of the shaft at the cave entrance within about 10 minutes. It was pretty amazing to look back up the rope and see where you had just come from. I continued into the caves with the guide along the side of a fast flowing stream - he said that it was probably one of the highest water levels he had seen the stream reach. We switched on our flashlights and climbed into the caves - because of the higher water levels we had to climb a bit higher away from the normal path. We went into a dark area at the back of the cave and sat down - when we switched off our helmet lights I saw that the roof of the cave was covered with glow worms - it was like looking up at a stary sky. We went back into the cave and then I had to climb a 30m ladder - this was difficult too as the ladder was wet and there was water dripping down onto my face if I looked up. Once at the top of the ladders we were in the upper levels of the cave and there was a path and another series of ladders which we followed that took us past various rock formations before leading us out of the cave.
After a quick lunch stop it was time for the Black Water Rafting. The rest of the people doing the rafting turned out to be traveling on the Magic Bus, but were only stopping off on the way to Rotorua. We arrived at the cave site and a short walk took us to the entrance of the cave where we collected our rubber rings. We walked down ito the caves and waded through the water until it got deep enough to float the rings - unfortunately my rubber ring turned out to be a bit small for me and I kept tipping out and couldn't sit up straight. We had to form a line and you had to hold onto the Wellies of the person behind you. We then drifted on the river through the caves. We all turned out our lights and drifted along in the darkness - you had to be careful and push yourself away from rocks and the walls of the cave if you got too close (although as it was dark you usually hit them!). On the roof of the cave there were loads of glow worms which looked like a stary night sky - much more than I had seen on the Lost World tour - pretty impressive. The guides stopped us when the water level of the cave changed. You had to climb up and then fall off backwards into the river below off the falls holding onto your rubber ring. When everyone had made it down we got back into formation and turned out the lights again and drifted further into the caves. We reached another point where we had to climb out again as the water level changed again - this time you had to put the rubber ring around your waist and were moved down to a lower level. I liked this much better as we swam through the caves to the final obstacle - they had built a water slide in the cave. It was pretty scary as you could not see where the slide went to and there was a lot of water. The slide was really fast and when I hit the water below I drifted around a corner where I was met by another guide who made sure I was OK. The water level then dropped considerably and the guide directed me just to keep walking. I followed the stream through the caves - it seemed to go on for quite a while and I was starting to wonder if I'd missed a turning when a staircase came into view and I heard the voices of the rest of the group.
We headed out to the caves for hot showers and some soup - I then had to race back to the hostel to collect my stuff and I was the last to be picked up by the coach driver. The coach was packed and we headed off towards the next stop - Rotorua.
posted by Phil at 7:45 AM
2 Comments:
Did they only have tractor tyres then?
Really jellous always wanted to do Black Water Rafting!
Did you get to keep the wellies! Jen x
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