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Published: February 27th 2007
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On way to the caves
Black water caving in Greymouth For some reason I'm becoming a complete adrenaling junkie!! anything with a fear factor I'm there wanting to do it!!! Loving the whole feeling of getting outside your comfort zone...
Black water caving was an experience - I'm not a lover of tight enclosed spaces and when your trying to get through a tiny hole and you think to yourself 'there is no way I'm going to fit through that' you have to just push yourselve and with a few twists'n' turns of the body - by magic you squeeze yourself through. The tightest hole we had to squeeze through had to be the 'the rebirth hole' I'll leave the reasoning to your imagination!! The whole caving experience wasn't a favourite of mine but seeing the Glow Worms was just magical - sparkling green in colour just glowing in the dark - definately the highlight of the tour.
From Caving we drove approx 4-5 hours to a place called Hamner Springs which was a quaint little place very pretty, we researched 'what to do' in Hamner Springs prior to arriving as its renown for is its Thermal Spring Baths but we found a company offering quad biking adventure which
Black water caving
Having to dunk ourselves into the hole to fill our wetsuits up with cold water! looked and sounded like fun so we went nice and early in the morning with a pair of whellies on our feet - had a brillient time - was a little jubious at first as I've never driven a full size adult quad - but after pressing the excelorator a few times and getting more and more confident i was off flying over the rocks and rivers, the flying and swerving feeling is soo cool you think your losing control and you regain it again - the buzz and the drive you feel at the end of the ride is energising, we did finish looking quite dusty and a little wet at the feet - but thats all part of the fun!! after getting wet and dirty what's a better way to finsh the afternoon of with a laze and a soak in a thermal spring baths - the sulpher pools were a little smelly to say the least and at a temp of 40 degrees and the sun getting hotter and hotter wasn't really what I call pleasant - so i stuck to the Rock Pool which was sooo relaxing at 26 degrees - still a little hot but
not too bad. Managed to regain a little of my tan that afternoon which has slowly been fading away - score 😊
From Hamner Springs we drove to Picton where me and Louise got dropped off I'm booked to go scuba diving on the Marlborough Sounds - can not wait, it'll be my first diving experience in New Zealand! Lou is off to swim with dolphins in the morning. The rest of the girls (Preet, Stacey, Katy and Becky) went back to Blenheim to go wine tasting around the local vineyards (basically to get pissed!!)
On the afternoon we arrived me and Lou had a walk around Picton town centre & harbour, as we walked along the harbour we noticed a sign advertising speed boat rentals - we both looked at each other and thought what the heck, it was a stunning day what better to do to kill the afternoon then to go for a ride around the Marlborough Sound, we kept an eye out for the dolphins whilst trying our best trying to avoid other boats... was brillient!
Diving in Marlborough sound was cool - it seems the Kiwi's sink boats / ships into the Sound
Black water caving - rebirth
this is what i had to squeeze through!- when they have no more use for them on the sea... which baffled me a touch but the two ship/boat wrecks I dived had grown its own little sealife upon it. I got to see ample of star fishes humungus eels (would have made good jellied eel's mum dad!! - yum) along with a fair few fishes - visability wasn't the best but still it was a worth while dive.
That same afternoon we made our way to Abel Tasman - which was absolutely stunning! me and Louise booked ourselves onto a whole day kayaking trip around Abel Tasman for the following day, our guide Kyle The Kiwi was amazing - so funny telling us true & semi true stories about the Maori's and their history around the Abel Tasman waters. We kayaked through smooth waters to Tonga Island which is a stunning seal colony, cruising by looking at both fully grown seals and baby seals was beautiful watching them play in the waters. From Tonga Island we hit some heavy waves which was a struggle as the wind was strong the further we paddled along the cost, so Kyle the Kiwi gathered us together to make a sail so
Black water caving
The re-birth hole! we could cruise from the sea through to a gorgeous river - a picture of the sail would have been a perfect kodak moment but unfortunately it wasn't possible, we had no hands free - it was all about the team work so we didn't have to paddle for a while!!
From Abel Tasman we drove back down to Picton to catch our ferry across to the North Island - Our time in the South is now up... I'm really sad to leave the south as I have had the best time ever - my adrenalin has been pushed from one extreme to the next - levels that i never thought were ever possible... I'm hoping to get some more serious water rafting in whilst in the north island - I hear theres a river which has over 16 rapids and includes a 6 metre water fall to go down!!! Ooooo and I have my sky dive all booked for Sunday.... WELL EXCITED
Alittle update... our people carrier we hired in Christchurch broke down on us - the cam belt went! we were just outside Wellington on our way to Taupo ready for my skydive the following day
Black water caving
Finally we made it out! but unfortunately we weren't getting our replacement car until the following morning - so whether this is an omen not to jump out an aeroplane - who knows!!! We spent that night in Wellington where there was a carnival - so we headed out into the Cuba Street carnival and we also splashed out on a hotel room for the evening, realised you gotta have a touch of a luxury once in a while!! 😉 Carnival was a wicked laugh - street floats and food stalls, not a touch on the Nottinghill Carnival thou - me and preet partied to the wee hours in the morning where as the rest of the girls pampered themselves in their hotel rooms for the eve!!
After picking the new van up which we find out is now an 11 seater mini bus for the 6 of us, we headed into Taupo which is about a 5 hour drive from Wellington - we spent one night there and re-booked our sky dives for Monday but we woke up to find the weather wasn't looking so good - so once again our sky dive got cancelled.... its definately an omen!!! I'm gonna do it
but now I had to reschedule and book to do it on the Bay Of Islands further north but this time it'll be 12'000ft not the 15'000ft I really wanted 😞
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mamma
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nutter
What else can i say about our darling little mite. what else will she think of next!!!!!! I dread to even think these days! Love you lotsXXXXX Can't wait till you get home!