Waitomo Day 5 - Adventure Down Under...65 Meters!

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After a late night check in, Jeff and I attempted to sleep off the gluttony we embraced at The Green Dragon to be ready for a completely different adventure. The day's activity was a complete 180°from the previous. So upon waking we attempted the coffee find...and discoverd there wasn't even a McDonalds to go to! This coffee delinquency is becoming a problem...where's our embassy? Get the Secretary of State on the line! (Although please make it Tea Leone rather than John Kerry, I feel Tea would understand the depths of the needs of these two Pacific Northwest travelers better than John.) These Kiwis need to discover the joys of java stat!...so being desperate, we came to the conclusion that we'd have to drink the instant that seems to be readily available. Well, the experience is not something to write home about so I'll stop here!

So a bit groggy (under caffinated), a bit cold, and a bit nervous, we set off to find Black Water Rafting Co. We were quickly there and checking in...two for the Black Abyss tour please!

While waiting for our tour to begin, indecision started to set in. Back home, months ago, while sitting on my sofa reclined (fireplace on) looking up activities to do, this sounded perfect! Now that we were here, ehh...not so much. Jeff was a bit concerned about safety (we had to sign our life away with all the waivers,) I on the other hand was concerned about the cold. But, I had already paid for this, we were there, so we were going to do it gosh dang it! We met a lovely couple from Denmark who just dropped in that morning on a whim and signed up for the same tour. Turns out it would be just the four of us and our two guides. Brilliant!

There's a link I posted up in our itinerary about this tour we did. I recommend watching it because I can't even come close to explaining what we did. But realize that while you are watching the video, it's ten times that! There was rappelling, zip lining in complete darkness, jumping into COLD water, floating on intertubes, sliding down waterfalls, crawling, free climbing and discovering all about the glowworms. And much more that I can't even remember!

Sufficed to say, Jeff and I are still trying to digest that we actually conquered this particular venture. Amazing, yes. Out of our comfort zone, yes. Difficult, yes. Thrilling, yes. Intimidating, yes. To be repeated....NO! We did it, proud to the max about it, have incredible memories because of it, but we're good thank you very much.

Our two tour guides, Ben and Sara, were fantastic. They truly did have our lives in their hands for the 4 hours we were down under in the caves. It was educational, physically challenging and at times exhilarating!

After we climbed out of the caves up a waterfall, we discovered it was absolutely gorgeous outside! Of course it would be since we spent the whole day under. Sitting back at base camp, sipping on tomato soup with toasted bagels, we reveled in the fact we did what we did but man, we were exhausted! We got to review the pictures the guides took of us all on the adventure and promptly bought the memory stick to have each and every one! We've now got photographic proof we did it!

Unfortunately, we don't have a way to transfer the pictures from the memory stick to the devises on hand to share at the moment but when we get home we will.

Being thoroughly exhausted and hungry, we came home, showered, went to dinner, came back and crashed! Well, at least I did...Jeff got his binoculars out and spent several hours admiring the heavens.

What a day! What an amazing adventure! What memories we have! Our New Zealand trip is certainly turning into a trip of a lifetime...

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Photos

Black Water Rafting Co.
Base Camp...since we're here, might as well go through with it.

Kristine and Pip
It SEEMED like a good idea a couple of months ago...

Choose one!
We chose the Black Abyss Tour...not for the faint of heart!

All Dressed Up and Ready To Go!
Wet suits are a workout all by itself to get on and we hadn't even started yet!

Comments

[Mom]

You did it!
Sounds like great fun. For you.