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Published: December 3rd 2007
Before Shot
Sense the anticipation, the fear, the pure adreneline.... well, OK.. not quite so much hype, I think everyone was a bit apprehensive.Today's the day, our Blackwater rafting trip. 5 hours of caves, underground rivers, and innertubes. It started with an introduction to the trip and getting fitted out with Wetsuits, gumboots, helmets and harnesses. Next we headed out to the start of our trek to pratice repeling. Next we repeled 35 meters down in to the caves. The trip down started with 5 m out in space then a tight fit through the cave opening. Then it was ~25 m down the cave wall to a platform. Anne went first, then Tony, two other people on the tour, and then Chris. After a short walk we hooked up to a Flying Fox (also known a a zip line) for a fast ride in the dark, dark except for the glow worms. Anne didn't see the glow worms, she had her eyes shut tight for the whole ride.
After the trip down the Flying Fox it was time for some cave cookies and a cup of hot chocolate at the edge of the cave above the water and then into the water. We had an option to jump in with our inner tubes or slide in gently. Tony jumped, Anne and chris
210m underground
Strike a pose, there's nothing to it..... was that an EEL!!! slid. Then we splashed and floated upstream to take a look at some more glowworms upclose. Glowworms are actually the maggots of a cave fly. they glow to attract midges that live in the caves and trap them in sticky fishing lines they dangle down form the cave cieling.
Once we got to the beginning of the cave where the river emerges we turned around and floated in a chain back downstream in total darkness to better view the glowworms. It was spectacular. Back where we started our river tour we turned in our inner tubes and headed off to explore the rest of the cave system. Slipping and sliding, squeezing and crawling our way through the next 1.5 km we passed some great formations, met some local eels that live in the river and Tony even got to have an "Adventure Pee".
The last part of the trip was a free climb up a waterfall to get out of the cave. Fortunatly for Anne there was another way out. Our guides got some great pictures and we finished the trip with some hot showers, warm soup and a toasty bagel.
Tomorrow we head past Auckland to
Anne Repel
Anne went first. The guides were quite content with the sounds she made. Hey.. she went FIRST.. now that is bravery!! the Northlands after a brief stop at Sheep World!
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