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Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Waikato » Waitomo Caves
October 17th 2006
Published: November 12th 2006
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I am so pleased we allowed time in our increasingly hectic schedule to visit the small rural town, Waitomo. We'd heard good things about the "black water rafting" that you can do there which had been described to us as sitting in a blown up tractor tyre tube on a river in the pitch black of a cave. Fun.

The extensive network of caves in the subterranea of the Waikato district are formed as rain water trickles through a ceiling of porous limestone rocks, eroding the soft rocks and forming stalagmites and stalactites and all that.... The caves are also home to insect larvae which would normally be a reason NOT to visit the caves except these larvae are commonly known as glowworms. Vibrations in the cave trigger a bioluminescent reaction in the glowworm which in turn attracts their prey (small flying insects) who are trapped in the glowworm silk threads that hang down from the cave ceiling. Some of these caves can be visited by pathway from the roadside, some require a few more ropes and carabiners to get you there and others require some serious caving abilities. Tom and I plumped for the middle of the road adventure,
Taylor RapsTaylor RapsTaylor Raps

Rappeling into the abyss
but this still involved a 25 metre abseil/rapel into the cave, some black water rafting and then a rock climb back out of the cave. As neither of us have abseiled before OR rock climbed on "a real face," we thought this was a sufficient taster.

Although we both felt a bit shaky at the top of the abseil, the swinging and bungying in Queenstown served to remind us to "trust the ropes" and we swiftly rapelled down like baddys in a Bond movie. The rafting was a gentle and calm experience as the water was pretty shallow so we always felt in control. When we penetrated the heart of the cave and turned our headlamps off, it was amazing to see thousands of tiny lights emitted from the glowworms. I felt like I was in a ballroom lit up by fairy lights or under a carpet of stars with no idea how far above my head the glowworms actually were. As well as telling us about the glowworms, our leader introduced us to the art of caving and made us squeeze through a few speleothem. As you can tell by the photos, we had great fun in the caves - far from the dark, cold and slightly spooky experience that we had predicted it to be. The most nerve wracking part was rockclimbing out of the cave with wellies on our feet. We all managed this without slipping , necessitating the use of the safety harness, and were pretty relieved to reach terra firma.


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A Tight CrackA Tight Crack
A Tight Crack

Oooh err Missus
Ready To RaftReady To Raft
Ready To Raft

In other words, go along a cave stream in a car inner tube!


13th November 2006

Best yet!
Hi guys! That's it, I'm leaving UK and going to NZ! That looks wicked!!! (That will also teach your parents for telling you to not do silly things...)

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