North Island Day 5: Black Water Rafting

The first thing I thought this morning when I woke up in the back of my car was, "Fuck! I'm never drinking and making bets ever again!" My second thought was, "Fuck it's gonna be cold in the water in them caves today!"

We dragged ourselves out of bed and arrived at the Legendary Black Water Rafting Company just up the road, signed our lives away and waited for the guides to show up. We saw a couple of folks walk in wearing harnesses and for one brief moment I thought I might have to entrust my life to a man with a mullet but they must have been on another tour. Our guides were Brydie who was far too enthusiastic for that hour in the morning and Cory who had wandered past us earlier masked in a pair of sunnies and clutching a cup of coffee. They proceeded to kit us out in damp wetsuits, a fetching pair of shorts, boots and a harness then they drove us to the cave entrance.

How Hot Are We?

Practising...

The harness was how we'd be getting into the cave, we'd be abseiling 40 metres into a hole after a quick lesson on how not to die when suspended by your genitals by a rope. Ok so maybe not quite the genitals but that's how it feels. Once we were all at the bottom we waited while the boys checked to see that everything was where they left it before the descent then we were lead to a flying fox and sent down it in the dark.

Note The Terrified Grin

So far so good. The most difficult part was trying to eat flapjacks with the chin strap from the helmet keeping my jaw in place. At least it was until they handed us a tube each and told us to jump 4 metres into the water whilst holding it to our arses and all without drowning please. Actually easier than it looked at first and shit it was fun! It IS cold but the wetsuits are brilliant so its only really your hands that feel like they're going to have to be removed on account of the frost bite. Once we were all in the black water we were guided up the tunnel to get an education on the glow worms which dotted the cave ceiling. There were millions of them and apparently they're not worms, they're maggots and the glowy bits are their arses and they glow coz they're burning off waste matter. So basically it's shiny shit. Nice.
They catch their prey in these snot like stringy things that look minging but y'know what? They can look as minging as they want while they're catching mozzies. Mozzies are my arch nemesis.

The previous night me and Andi had been taking the piss out of the retarded look on the faces of the people on the promo poster as they gazed at the roof. Once we'd been lead up the tunnel we had to link up in a train, turn our lights off and we were lead back down the way we came. I caught myself gawping up like a slack jawed imbecile, tongue lolling to one side. If I was drooling it would have just been perfect. In fact I probably was.
The tour was awesome, the glow worms were stunning and once we'd rafted and waded our way through the caves we scrambled up two waterfalls and emerged into the open, I for one was grinning like a Special, it was a brilliant few hours. The climb up the hill to the van was a bitch though but we were rewarded with a hot shower and tomato soup which, of course, I ate until I physically couldn't fit anymore in.

Once we were home we chilled in the hot tub until I'd regained feeling in my extremities and I resembled a hairy prune. I would SO recommend that tour to anyone. Maybe not in winter though. Unless you're hardcore or don't want your fingers anymore.

written by

Koala Bear on January 17, 2009 from Waitomo Caves, New Zealand

from the travel blog: Tiny Little NZ Road Trip

tagged RoadTrip, LovinIt and NorthIsland

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OMG - I am LAUGHING MY ARSE off re-reading all these!

I had so much fun and forgot bits and pieces.......

FUN FUN FUN!

written by Andrea on February 19, 2010

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