Waitomo Caves its one of the big’ins the must dos in the north island! After hearing this everywhere we went we decided it was our time. Being as excitable as we are we probably over hyped this a fair bit our selves, but it was defiantly built up a lot and by the time we arrived we were ready for whatever the caves and Gollum had to offer. After signing away our lives saying we were in a fit ‘responsible’ state (haha) we were introduced to a couple of the Lord Of The Rings extras who were in fact going to be our guides. This filled me with confidence as it was obvious as these lads spent far too much time underground as nether of them by the look of had been near a barber or a tailor in a looooong time! First rule of caving…its not a fashion pastime, its not glamorous and defiantly not meant to be sexy all that said I think we looked dam hot in our retro dive suits, white wellies climbing harnesses and big helmets. So the second part was learning how to absail, this was 100% pointless because (as I demonstrated to the guy on my way down the super massive black hole) I wasn’t fat enough to over come the home made friction device. Anyway we learnt on the ‘stimulator’ the best way of stopping in an emergency is to stick you thumb up your bum while holding the rope, Mairi really wasn’t getting the hang of it and it was quite embarrassing until she twigged that we were in fact just playing along to get this pointless exercise over with asap. Hahah. Only once it came to being lowered over the edge of the massive black hole did everyone, bar Mairi, get scared as we hadnt practiced the technique. Nerveless one by one we managed to squeeze/bump and grind our way through the hole and into the chasm (of Doom) below and reach the bottom intact. Next up it was a quick geology lesson as we climbed steadily deeper down into the cave complex past impressive and suitably old stalagmites. Then came the zipwire into oblivion. Feeling like I needed to make up for wee incident during my last attempt to man up during the zorbing I stepped up. After being strapped in to a harness and all the lights turned off I jumped out into the blackness…I mean pure black it was so dark! My harness quickly caught me and I sped off (I think I was going fast I have no idea really cos my hair was too short to blow in the wind). The only point of reference were the millions of littlie glowing specs all around me and below me?! After what felt like an eternity there was an enormous bang and I crashed to a stop swinging wildly completely disorientated. The first thing that went through my head was some twat forgot to take the knots out of this zip line AMATURES, but then the bright light was blinding me and when my eyes adjusted the face of our guide was inches from mine. WAY more creepy than the thought of being stuck in the dark in a cave on a zip line! Next up we are treated to hot chocolate and home baking and I realize how there were glow worms below me…it was just their reflection in the cold mirror still water below us. Jumping in was again built up and made into some really complicated exercise where in fact all we were doing was jumping with a rubber ring off a wee ledge into some scary black cold water. The physical act was a bit of a let down, but watching the other group members reactions was well worth it. As we were guided up stream below the glowing maggots we given a brief account of the caves history followed by the biology chat on glowworms and what makes them glow. They aint cute! It was time for the lights to be turned out and for us to drift back down stream in pitch blackness guided only by the wee maggots and their shiny shit. It sounds weird but honestly it was one of the most relaxing/hypnotic things I think I've ever done. My zen like state was shattered as one of our guides smacked his rubbger ring against the wall making some lesser skilled ringorers fall out of their ring and panic in the cold dark water. It was explained that the loud noises make the worms s#!t themsleves and so glow bighter. Soon the water became too shallow and the cave too narrow for our rings and so we abandoned them on a shelf and headed off on foot again in to the pitch blackness guided only by the rope in front. as we clambered through the caves the water depth changed dramatically and every now and then a wrong step could lead to you treading water and swallowing water (which actually tates very clean). On our arrival at the end of the cave complex we were told about the eels living in the waters around us a wee yin was pointed out, at 2ft he was probably the scariest part of the trip. To escape the labarenth we were required to free climb 2 water falls up to the surface and although we were all expecting the birghtness of day light the realilty actually hurt the eyes. After some pretentuous posing and frolicing in a shallow pool by the cave exit it was time to head back for some free lunch and to find some waves!
Now Im sorry but there's no way I'm paying hundred bucks for some peelywally dude with dreads and a cheap disposable camera to take photos of me...so I've drawn a drawn a diagram showing what it was like.
On the way back to Raglan (I know broken record) we decided to head north along the coast. This turned into one of the most entertaining drives we had (bar robinhood bay which just plain scary). We had heard of a beach to the south of raglan which picked up a hell of alot more surf and after a quick check on MacyD's internet which confirmed our fears about the lack of swell we set off due east. Arriving late in the last wee town we conducted a quick tour of the camp-sites before being persuaded into a slightly overpriced/slightly creepy camp-site down by the beach (which turned out to be a river beach in day light bummer!). Undeterred we headed along to where we were promised there would be salt water and waves. The first beach we came across was epic big empty and backed by huge sand dunes and a dense forest. The swell here was all over the place with big close outs rolling through so surfing quickly dropped off the todo list.
After a quick walk we headed on to try find 'the next' beach up. With no maps and a satnav which said we were 150k or from the nearest road we took a random left and after passing a pig (pigs are lucky right) we continued down along this gravel road for ever and a day. Eventually we arrived at THE beach, only the wind had turned onshore turning the what we assumed had been beautifully groomed 4-6ft surf into lifeless monsters of mush! Mairi went for a run while I grumped about the swell while pretending to read my rubbish book. Once my mood had lifted and Mairi had ran the length of the beach we went exploring. At the far end of the beach we came by several waterfalls free falling from the cliffs behind the beach down on to the sand. After a quick smell test it was decided showers were in order to rid us of the stench of cave wet suits. This was one of the best showers ever. I challenge any one to come up with a better one. views of the surf, warm, powerful and all to easy for a herbal essence poses!
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| lucky pig! |
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| my new pants :) |
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| check out the rainbow! |
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| HaHa |
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