New Zealand - Waitomo Caves & Maketu - Underground Abseiling.

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Lovely morning in Raglan! Managed to pack up pretty quickly. It’s hard work this, backpacking around. I’m not used to it! I’m the dumb one that packs everything and anything as well, which means I’m carrying 23 kilos on my back.. Stupidity at it’s best! I’m just hopeless with throwing stuff out, I get attached! I did manage to chuck a load of clothes out before I came here, in fact quite a lot and it broke my heart.. But then ridiculously I ended up buying more stuff! WHY SUSIE WHY! So anyway quickly make myself some peanut butter on toast and we all piled in the bus and headed on our way towards the Waitomo caves! Today I signed up to absail down 3 underground waterfalls.. Nice huh! Gotta be done. I was absolutely nackered on the bus, I kept drifting off to sleep. Our bus is actually awesome though, everyone’s starting to really feel comfortable with each other now and there’s definitely a close group forming. There’s 3 odd swede boys who like to keep themselves separate but other than that the rest of us are pretty close. Unfortunately I said bye to Martina this morning, lame..! There’s also some cool games we play on the bus, one of them is the game of life and whenever anyone says the name ‘mine’ as in belonging to me.. You either have to do ten press ups/sit ups or star jumps. The same applies if you’re late for the bus. I know it sounds ridiculous but it’s kinda fun as you catch people out all the time! Unfortunately I’m a favourite as I fall for it all the time, but at least it means I’m getting fit! Another game.. There’s these men in yellow jackets that sometimes hold a stop sign in the middle of the road, and basically when we stop someone at random has to get out the bus and give him a kiss and then get back on the bus without any explanation. Yet again ridiculous but funny! So far only Cougar has had the courage to do it though ha.

Anyway we arrived at the caving place. I’m absolutely shitting it as part of this means wall climbing back up the caves and I’m awful at this as I have such tiny hands and legs so it’s hard for me to grip. Also I heard you have to be quite physically fit and I’m not sure I am tbh! There’s another activity called blackwater rafting which is meant to be less strenuous as you’re sat in a rubber tube floating along in water in the dark. However there is swimming and climbing too and stuff.. I was tempted to do that instead, but I decided to stick with abseiling as I’ll probably never get another chance again! So there’s quite a few of us doing it and we all get changed into our wetsuits. They’re MINGING! Seriously unflattering but I guess they’re not there to look good! Then we got our helmets with torches and our wellies. We were then strapped up by our leader called Louis, he’s seriously cool. After that he drove us out to our caving spot. We had some training first how to actually attach the ropes and actually slide down them and stuff. It was pretty easy to pick up! No way near as hard as I thought it would be. He introduced us to a guy called Brewzer who would be helping us too, he’s there to be our safety net if we do by any chance let go of the rope, bit of a beefcake he is.. So I felt pretty safe! Then we made our way into the cave.. It was TINYYYYYYYY! I absolutely shit myself, I thought caves were like big huge entrances and stuff! I was super excited though because I was doing it goonie style! I had alwayssssss wanted to do something like the goonies and now I was officially living it. So I planted myself somewhere in the middle, as long as I can see people in front and behind me I was feeling good. So Louis decided to throw us in at the deep end and start the entire journey with a 20 ft drop.. Lovely! So we’re all squeezed in this tiny entrance and 1 by 1 had to make our way over to him and drop down this huge underground cliff. As I was waiting 2 HUGE spiders decided to walk by me.. Wow. I was not getting a good first impression of this trip. Eventually it was my turn, Louis was awesome though and made me feel really relaxed. So I attached the rope how we we were taught and then he told me to swing round OFF the cliff.. Aaaaaaaaah! That was the scariest bit, lowering myself was actually pretty easy, and amazing! I was more scared of spiders coming past me while going down though. But I did manage to do it pretty safely, in fact I did very well! I got down quicker than most of the others did.

Once we were all at the bottom we then officially started our cave journey. It basically involved a lot of crawling through small spaces and climbing around. We did see loads of glow-worms though! They’re so cool… like little stars all over the cave ceilings! However the fact it’s actually their poo that’s glowing, takes away the zing-ness to it. Then we reached our first waterfall! I had got the hang of abseiling now, I went straight down like a pro! The water falling on me was absolutely incredible, I loved it! Further down we had another waterfall and by then everyone was totally cool with it.. And then we for our final waterfall, Brewzer decides to tell us that we’re doing it in the dark.. And he’s just dropping us! We’re not even climbing down we’re dropping down! Fortunately it was only a small drop, and it was super fun! So then we did a lot more crawling and walking around. It amazes me how caves like this are discovered and haven’t at all been tampered with for tourists. The entire passageway is totally natural, it’s fucking amazing. Then the climbing back up started.. This was when I started to struggle! At one point we had to clamber up a huge wall and I honestly thought I wouldn’t manage it, but my determination helped me eventually get there! Finally after a long 3 hours we reach our final huge ladder out of the cave! I make it! YAYYYYYYYY.. Not so yay. There’s a huge hill full of steps that I have to climb up, oh my god. I was SO tired I think it took me longer getting up that hill than it did inside the caves! We all got back to the main place and stripped off and I literally leaped into the shower. I stankkkkkkk! Ate a chicken and crisps sandwich, mmm, then we were on our way back to the main site! Louis had taken some wicked pictures down in the cave and I decided to purchase some. I want to get as many picturse and videos from activities as much as possible. Moments worth capturing! The trip was definitely worth the money. I’d never done anything like that before. Anddd then we were off again! I’m getting used to these bus journeys, in fact I kind of enjoy them.

Tonight is our ‘cultural stop’. We’re going to a small village in a place called Maketu. It’s where the Maori tribes are held and we’re going to go and stay there and join in with their culture and stuff, woohoo! All I know about Maori is what I saw in a film called ‘Once Were Warriors’ and it didn’t really give me a very good impression of them. The film is actually kind of terrifying/upsetting/amazing. I had always wanted to know more about them and their tribes and stuff. So it’s called Uncle Bens.. And when we arrived we were greeted by an adorable old Maori man. He explained everything to us and basically said that we were now a tribe, and he appointed Derek our chief. He told us how the Maori tribe would approach us and put down a leaf, if Derek chooses to accept the leaf then peace will be made, if not.. We basically have declared world war 2! Also we aren’t allowed to smile as they find it as an insult. We also have to all stay in the big house together, which is basically a big room. We all set up our own beds with mattresses all over the floor!

After our introductory speech we had a delicious dinner cooked for us. It was pretty much a buffet and I went back a few times! I’ll never say no to everlasting food. Then we were ready for our Maori concert. We all took our shoes off and headed into the house itself, without smiling! The tribe were there waiting for us, humming a song. Then the boys (who were abnormally muscly for their age!) started their approach to us. It was basically a load of shouting and slapping of the thighs, waving spears around and pulling seriously scary faces at Derek. Then they put the leaf down.. And he accepted it! Peace was made! At this point we all had to line up and shake hands with the rest of the tribe. The way Maori greet each other is by saying ‘Kia-ora’ so we had to also say this and rub noses with them. And then came the concert! They all performed a series of really nice tribe songs, I have no idea what any of them mean but still. It was sweet as a lot of them were quite young! We then split up the boys and girls and each group had to learn a tribal dance. The girls dance was waaaaay easier than the boys! They had to learn a load of words too, luckily we just had to swing around this ball thing and shake our hips. It was very entertaining though! There were lots of pictures and videos taken.

After our wicked concert night was over we hung outside for a bit drinking. They have an adorable little dog that I was playing with.. I think I’ve mentally recovered from being bitten by the dog last time! After a wee bit of drinking it was time for everyone to head to the beach to continue our party! We made our way down and tried to hunt for wood to make a bonfire, but failed. Everyone sat in a circle and got very much drunk. Naturally this lead to a game.. Time for ‘Never have I ever..’ what a classic! Discovered some awesome home truths about everyone! Scott pretty much drank to every single one, that dirty dog. Soon enough we walked back and collapsed into our beds on the house floor. It was a bit surreal going to sleep with everyone in there, but cool at the same time. Still I was glad to have my trusty pillow for comfort as everyone elses looked shit. Had generally a good nights sleep..

Excited for tomorrows adventures! More to come..

Tara! xxx

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