Glow-worms 'n things

Hamilton is the largest inland city in the North Island. We stopped there for one night on our way to Waitomo. Through Lisa’s connections, we met up with some of the Hamilton locals for dinner. The next morning we went to their coffee roasting shop, Rocket Roasters, and learned what coffee beans look like before they are roasted. After some amazing mochachinos, we took off for Waitomo for some black water rafting!

Waitomo is the home of the glow-worm caves, as well as extreme adventures such as caving, abseiling, tubing and rock climbing. We decided it was best to try all of these activities. Rap, Raft n Rock offered it all in one five hour trip; plus some hot soup at the end. What a deal! Our group consisted of the four of us plus two chaps from Britain, George and Fred. The first extreme adventure was riding in the van to our starting point. From the looks of the broken “oh s_ _t!” handles, many people before us had endured the same windy, bumpy, rocky and steep trail they called a road. We survived the suicidal driving only to find out that we had to don purple stretchy pants over our wet suits. We were never quite sure what the function of the purple pants were. I have a sneaking suspicion it was so the guides could have a good laugh at our expense! Our outfit was complete with white gumboots, mine of which had large holes in them, and a helmet with a battery pack and headlight attached.

We had a quick lesson on abseiling (repelling) before descending down the 30 meter opening of the cave, where there was a river at the bottom. We tramped up the river, carrying our inner tubes. At one point we were instructed to turn our lights off and hang onto each other as we followed our leader in complete darkness. Over our heads were thousands of tiny glow-worms that looked like stars in the sky. At the very end of the cave, we turned around and used our inner tubes to float back down the river. At one point I stopped being able to feel my feet the water was so cold. Half way through we stopped for some hot drinks and a chocolate bar which tasted wonderful, before heading back to the opening of the cave. It was getting dark by this time and we still had to rock climb out of the cave. I was very hesitant about climbing 30 meters in the dark with gumboots on while not being able to feel my feet, but I made it. The soup, waiting for us at the end, made the whole trip worth it!