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Published: March 30th 2006
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Into the Abyss
This is the chasm we abseiled into, bit scary but very beautiful We were on the road again heading down to Waitomo to go and see the caves there. On the way down the weather changed for the worst and, however much we trusted her, we knew that G.I.Jane would not keep us dry if it poured. So on the way through Hamilton, we stopped off at another Warehouse (yes, I might get shares in it!) and brought some Tarp and a big ball of string. Upon leaving the carpark, we spotted a drive through Maccy D's so we decided to grap a bargin 50c ice cream cone. As we couldn't be bothered to get out the car we kranked Tor's iPod up to full blast through the car speakers and drove through McDonalds singing our hearts out to the Baywatch theme! I think the staff thought we were mad or they were just boring and nasty, which after starting the cones and them tasting a bit funky, I think it was proberly the latter!
We arrived in Waitomo and decided to camp at a place called Hamilton Tomo Group Hut. It was like a throwback to the 80's, the place had old photos and newspaper clippings stuck everywhere, it even had
Hot Cavers 2006!
This is us and two random Dutch guys dress in our full caving gear, very sexy you've got to admit! old National Geographics dating back to 1973! But it was clean, had a laundry, hot showers, a kitchen and a stereo, so we were more than happy. After setting up our tents, we decided to go into the village to get some supplies. However, Godfery had other ideas. He wouldn't start. After half an hour of Ben and Jon staring at the engine, Ben realised that he left the lights on and the battery was flat. So Tor and I went to try and find some jump leads. We stumbled across a house but no one was in except for a very cute puppy and kitten that were in the garage. We decided that the boys probably wouldn't be too happy if we took them back with us as we were pretty certain that they would be able to charge a battery! We managed to hail down loads of cars (probably helped that it was hot so we were wearing skirts and vest tops and the cars were all driven by men!). We eventually flagged down a car that had jump leads so after giving Godfreya bit of life we drove to the village. The boys decided to let us
Fireman Jon
Jon squeezing through a tiny cave, lucky enough, we all managed to get through without getting our bums stuck! go to find out about the caving and rafting options while they drove Godfrey round a bit to give him a bit of life. An hour later Tor and I were still waiting so decided we might as well have a beer while we were waiting. Two later they turned up, us thinking they'd broken down but they'd been to the bottle shop!
After eating a deliciously cheesy meal, we all trotted off to bed. Sound asleep, I was suddenly woken up by Jon whispering "Kim, there's something attacking the tent", "No, its just the wind, go back to sleep" I replied as the whole tent starts to shake violently and a dog starts barking and growling right by our heads! We didn't know what to do! Ben and Toria wouldn't put their heads out to see what the dog was like but eventually did, armed with a tent peg and an apple! After shouting at the dog and throwing the fruit at it which suprising did actually make it shut up for a minute, we realised that the dogs chain had become tangled in our guide ropes and it couldn't move. I got out and untangled it but
Action Man Ben
At this point Ben managed to get his trousers caught on a rock and ended up climbing through on his back to get through! as soon as I did, it started jumping up at me and licking my feet! All the others were out the tents by now and just sat back and watched me being slobbered to death while pissing themselves laughing! The dog eventually got bored and decided that Tor, lying in her sleeping bag was a much better target and fought desperatly to get in their tent! My turn to laugh! We eventually went and woke up the very grumpy warden who tied it to a tree at the bottom of a field, very roughly, but the flaming dogs tail was wagging rapidly the whole time! Nutter!
The next morning, after G.I.Jane had passed her 2nd Initiation test (she hadn't fallen down after the dog attack), we booked to go caving at 2pm so to waste the time before, we decided to go and watch a bit of Shearing. May sound boring, but this wasn't any normal kind of shearing, this was Angora Rabbit shearing! This huge rabbit had its four legs tied to a spit roast type contraption so the shearer could spin it around to get all the fur. It look so cruel but extremely funny and the
In a hole
We all managed to squeeze into this little hole in the cave, took a bit longer to get out though! rabbit seem fine anyway.
In the afternoon we went caving and it was fantastic. We donned our incredibly attractive wet suits and white welly boots and headed to the caves. Once there, we abseiled down 27 metres into a chasm and went into the cave that was waist height in water most of the way. We then saw our first glow worms which was just magical. It looked like they'd put fairy lights in the ceiling of the caves. We rafted into another cave on big rubber rings and then climbed the caves, through tiny gaps and thin ledges. We were then led in the pitch black through a tunnel on our rings where there were even more glow worms than before. It was so beautiful, you almost felt as though you were oputside in the dark. The only thing that could slightly ruin it, is the fact that the emmitting light is actually the glow worms faeces, yes it has glowing poo! But still so stunning, honest! To get out of the chasm we had to rock climb 20 meters up the side. It was a brilliant experiance.
We were all pretty shattered by the evening so
Miss Incredible Toria
Toria decided it'd be a great idea just to lanch herself through a hole then managed to slip halfway down the passage, remember Tor, caves aren't playgrounds!! after a fantastic mexican munch (cheers Ben and Jon) we all flaked out in the tents. That night G.I.Jane passed initiation test No#3 as it rained hard and we stayed completely dry! Yeay!
After having the front brake pads changed (we realised we didn't really have any!) and some auto fluid added so the gears would actually change without them grinding, we headed for to the Tongariro National Park.
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