Black Water Rafting Adventure!!

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16th February 2009 - RAFTING THROUGH CAVES....THE COLD SPREAD TO MY HAPPY PLACE!!!
I was awake pretty early again...around 7.30am!! My shoulder was playing up again...really must do something about it! I went and had breakfast and then wrote some postcards and showered before Nat woke up at around 9am. It was too late to go and do the Tongariro Crossing and so we decided to stay another night in Taupo and head to do the Black Water Rafting at Waitomo Caves instead. I phoned up to book as I had saved a 10% off coupon (I am all over the coupons out here) and was advised that the only available a lot was at 12.45 with check in at 12.30. It was already 10am and Nat had only just got in the shower. It was a 2 hour drive and so we would be pushed but after checking with Nat I booked it anyway. Didn't have time to wait another day.

We set off at around 10.30am. It was Nat's turn to drive and with her putting her foot down combined with my excellent navigational skills we made it there for 12.25am without taking any wrong turnings!! Nat was a bit stressed at having to rush but once we were there she was ok again. We checked in, signed our lives away again and waited for our instructors to come and collect us. We were doing the Black Labyrinth Course which lasted around 3 hours. I wanted to do the Black Abyss as it was more of an intense adrenalin rush but it didn't fit in with times plus it was twice the price. Oh well...its not like I am short on adventure out here and the Labyrinth looked good too.

At 12.45 our guides came to get us and then took us to get rubberised. I mean rubberised as well....we got bootees, wetsuits, jackets, shorts, goofy boots and a hard hat with a torch on. The stuff was damp and didn't smell too good either...not nice to put on and with each item added we just looked stupider and stupider!! By the time I had got everything on I had so many tyres from all the rubber I could have done the truffle shuffle!! Can't believe I actually paid money to look like such a fool!! Nat got it worse than me though...her jacket smelt of really bad body odour. Not just damp but putrid BO. I laughed at her but it wasn't nice. I tried not to get too close especially when she put her arms up in the air. Unlucky Rubber ducky!!

We were then taken on the bus to Waitimo forest where we were given rubber tyres and made to do stupid stuff like sticking our bums through them and rolling about on the floor. All good fun though. We were then told that we would have to jump down a couple of waterfalls once in the caves and so we had to have a practice. We lined up on a platform holding our rubber tyres on our bottoms and one by one jumped off backwards into the dirty cold river. My ring was so big I practically fell right through it as I landed. The water was freezing and the cold spread right to my happy place. Nat turned to me and we laughed....couldn't believe we had paid money to jump into such a filthy river.

Once practice was over & we were all wet we were taken down into natures underground network where a river canyon had been formed. the cave we went into was Ruakuri cave. We made our way over some rocks and then had to sit in our rings and lay back to pass under a really low part of the cave. The ceiling was around an inch from our faces. Not so good for Nat who gets a bit claustrophobic but she coped well and was fine!! We kept laughing and thinking of the code word 'mistletoe' which is used on the film '4 Christmases' to get out of a bad situation. I think Nat shouted mistletoe around 5 times when we were down in the cave but no one took any notice!! Funny!!

After scrabbling over more rocks we came to a small waterfall which we had to jump off backwards like we had practiced. My ring (which I had swapped for a smaller one was so deflated that I went straight under the water. The cold not only reached my happy place.....it saturated it!! Nat went after me and totally fell out of her ring and into the water. Funny stuff and the cave experience was a good (but cold) one so far!!

We then made our way over more rocks before stopping for a sit down and looking up at the glow-worms on the roof of the cave. We were all given a chocolate fish whilst we sat there and then turned our headlights off to see the glow-worms in their full glory. So cool...lots of tiny lights...like fairy lights decorating the cave. One of the instructors then gave us some facts about them. I was only half listening and heard "only a short amount of time to live" "genitals make up 50% of their body weight" "what do they do?" I put 2 and 2 together and made 74!! I assumed that she meant that they would die if they didn't get food and as genitals made up 50% of their body I responded with "EAT THEM!!" Everyone went silent and the instructor half laughed as she asked me what i just said. I repeated myself..."Eat them!!" Everyone burst into laughter. I didn't know what was so funny until I realised that i had got the wrong end of the stick. The glow-worms weren't going to die if they didn't eat, they just had a short life span and as their genitals made up 50% of their body, they spent their living days having nookie!! My hair may not be getting blonder in the sun but my brain definitely is!!

After looking at the glow-worms some more we continued through the cave until we came to a bigger waterfall. There was a huge whirlpool hole that we had to avoid and the jump over the edge backwards as we'd done before. It was a much bigger drop and once again my deflated tyre didn't do too good at keeping me above the surface but i didn't care. It was fun!! Nat managed to stay in her ring this time though she did shout mistletoe before she had to jump off. Everyone else must have wondered what we were on about!! Once down the waterfall we made a big train by laying in the rings and putting your legs around the person in front. We then saw daylight through a 65metre tomo and then got out of our rings and scrambled over more rocks. For the final part of the journey, the instructors made us all turn our lights off and find our way out of the cave by using our hands to paddle and following the glow-worms on the roof of the cave. It was so dark you could not really see anything but it was fun and a good use of the stomach muscles. We eventually found our way out and emerged into the sunlight in Waitomo Forest.
It was then a short walk back to the bus and a short drive back to the base. We then pulled ourselves out of the rubber suits and Nat got out of her BO suit before getting warm under a hot shower. Nat took twice as long as everyone else to get clean as she had to scrub and scrub to get the awful smell off her skin. Once dressed we were taken up to the cafe where warm soup and bagels were waiting for us. Mmmmm...tasty!! Really really enjoyed the whole thing and was well worth the drive!! No photos of this adventure though once we got in the caves so my descriptive account will have to satisfy you!!

The drive back took a bit longer than getting there. we took a wrong turning...not my fault or Nats. we blame the roads and poor signage!! We arrived back at the hostel at around 6.30pm where we got straight onto sorting out our adventures for the following day. We were planning to do the Tongariro Crossing which involved getting up and 5am. We phoned the expedition office and got directions as well as learning where we needed to be for the shuttle bus. We also got the hostel to book us a room at a sister hostel in Wanganui for after our trek. Once all sorted we went shopping to get some food for a packed lunch the following day.

Back at the hostel it was around 8pm. we cooked a big pasta tea loaded with carbs and made our sandwiches for the next day. Turned out the Hull guys (Bob and Dave) were also going on the trek tomorrow and so we sat with them for a while in the kitchen discussing it and having a general chit chat. Before we knew it, it was 10.30 and so Nat and i made our way to our room where we got our stuff ready for morning and then drifted into the land of nod!!

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Photos

Totally Rubberised!!!
Can't believe I paid $94.50 to look like this!!

Comments

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Rafting adventure
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