Advertisement
Published: March 12th 2007
Edit Blog Post
prep for bungee
oh dear what am i doing More about the glow worms in a mo , trying to keep things kind of chronoligal here. I shall be bold though and predict the life of a glow worm shall steal the show.
I did my 1st bungee jump off Auckland Harbour Bridge the other day. It was only 41 metre’s high which sounds a bit pathetic. Strangely enough though 41 metre’s seems quite high when you are actually up there on the edge of a plank. When you jump they film you so that you can look back on your jump. I tried to some kind of photogenic/aesthetically pleasing leap of faith. To be honest I though I had cracked it first go, how wrong could I be? After viewing the film I think belly flop would be a more appropriate description of my technique. Not to worry though I am working on my technique for the Nevis jump in Queenstown which is 133 metre’s, 3.5 times bigger than my current bungee B.P. Shall probably induce some kind of heart related fatality. I assure you though it’s all good fun.
Anyhow first place on my little two week skip around the north island was Waitimo. Hmm
prep for bungee
yep not the best idea ive ever had Waitimo where do u start and where do you end? Probably wouldn’t exist as a place if there were no caves. As a place it’s fair to call it minimalist. Someone in Auckland had warned me that Waitimo was a one night stay at best; of course I chose to ignore him. To compound this little overstay I was staying at YHA (WILL ROT YOUR SOUL) Now I know that the whole YHA thing was started 75 years or so ago but they really are just characterless but clean holes. Maybe they are just a bit outdated I don’t know. Anyhow the Marks and Spencer’s of hostel land is probably the best description of the YHA. This isn’t even me moaning! Regurgitated views of my fellow roomies. Oh and to exacerbate the problem the receptionist was a cow. I don’t make these comments lightly as I know of my own short comings in the customer service industry hahah.
YHA’s are also the allotted overnight stop offs for Kiwi Experience (Big green lurgee masquerading as a backpacker tour bus) Often described as the armpit of arranged travel amongst other things. Type in Kiwi experience on travel forums and you shall
thats me
didnt wanna pay for official photo. In retrospect probably should have probably get some more choice descriptions of it. I myself don’t really have a problem with it, might give it a bash sometime. How bad can it be ?! Oh actually I do have a problem Kiwi experience block books hostels leaving lonesome travellers like me homeless. Swine’s.
Anyhow sorry about that little tangent, just had to get it off my chest. The primary reason I was in Waitimo was to caving. I can tell you the caves are amazing. Talk about ying and yang. For the caving you travel up into the hills above Waitimo. Then you put on a wetsuit, helmet etc……..and you go into an underground wonderland which is roughly 7 degree’s and full of water, which in parts is fast flowing and pretty high up. A lot of this is dependent upon rain which there has been very little of recently. That was until the day I arrived in Waitimo where in just seemed to rain torrentially for 2 days straight. During that period the water levels in the cave rose by about 5 foot. Down in the caves you have to swim crawl squeeze and any number of other things. However I guess the
main point of been there was to see the glow worms which literally light up the ceiling of the cave. Although the worms technically aren’t maggots as they are still in cocoons. So really they are glow maggots. The glowing bit is actually there waste mixed with enzymes, glowing crap. Highlights of glow worm talk:
-They don’t have mouths when they hatch so they can’t eat. Yep that’s right they starve to death.
-They can’t crap out there own waste. They just expand to the point of no return.
-They take 9 months to hatch. After this they stay alive for 3 days, during which time they find a mate and promptly die!
If you are having a bad day just take some timeout and think of a glow maggot.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.02s; cc: 8; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0662s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb