Monday 16th April – Waitomo Caves

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We had survived our first night in the Van otherwise known as “Dolly”. The bed is quite comfortable and we have one good pillow but the other pillow I swear is plastic! It’s got a cover on it to stop you from peeing on it; so it’s now referred to as the “Piss Pillow”!

We setoff early 8.30 and head south along the M1 before joining the M3.

Our first stop was at Lyntons parents place in Te Awamutu. Lyntons parents manage the local race track and his father was a jockey before he retired.

Lyntons parents kindly gave us some money to put towards our next stop which was the “Kiwi House” in Otorhanga. We wandered around the enclosures for a while and watched the one Kiwi they had try to escape! It certainly wasn’t the best attraction but I guess you have to see a Kiwi bird while in NZ. After a pie and sausage roll in the local bakery we continue on to the Waitomo caves. Just like many of the places we’ve been to there were a couple of caving companies but we booked with Waitomo Adventures. It’s raining today but I guess that’s not important if you are caving. We had a couple of hours to kill so we nipped in the local bar for a couple!

After a short bus ride to the caves we changed into our really attractive wetsuits and white Wellington boots. Not the best look!

We entered the caves at 3.00pm via a steel ladder through a very small hole! I was seriously concerned I wouldn’t fit through! I did however make it and we started our 4 hour trip involving walking, crawling, swimming and tubing through the caves. The highlight of the trip was the glow worms, thousands of the things, they were spectacular.

About 2 hours into the caves our guide was telling the group about an eel they had been feeding and how he disagreed with it! Just as he said “Its not bitten anyone yet” I feel this mouth envelope my finger! You have to remember at the this point I’m sitting on a rubber ring floating down a pitch black cave. Obviously I shit myself and scream out. The bloody eel had bitten me and even drawn blood! We searched and caught sight of the beast in the flashlight. It was about 4 feet long!

An hour later after a magnificent trip through caves with Stalactites, Stalagmites and columns we emerge out of the cave into the dark of night.

We really needed a warm shower by this point as the water was pretty cold!

The only good thing about being eaten by the eel was that we got free photos of the trip.

Ta Ta for now K & M

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Photos

Lynton & Kirsten
Grabbing a beer before caving