The One in a Dark Scary Cave!

It was the first clear-blue warm sunny day I had seen in weeks and I found myself looking down a hole into the cold darkness of an underground network of caves I was about to disappear into. Great planning Ashley. But when my gumboot-clad feet splashed down from my 88-foot drop my thoughts quickly changed to, that was awesome!

Its been 280 days since I found myself leaving on a jet plane to face the big scary world out there and I’m still in awe of all the not so scary but incredibly fun things I’ve been lucky enough to do! Playing underground in the Waitomo Caves has definitely been a highlight of those adventures!

Nicky, initially scared out of her mind to abseil into the cave, was waiting for me, grinning ear to ear, as I reached the bottom of my descent. I let out a triumphant “WOOHOO!” as I reached the rest of the group: a worried mother and her unruffled 12-year-old daughter from England, Nicky my mate from Queenstown, and a hilariously awkward half-bald German dude. We all matched in our oh-so-stylish head to toe outfits of helmets, headlamps, wetsuits, and gumboots. Our instructor Brendon, a former NZ Army soldier and survival guide specialist (think of the TV show Joe vs. Wild), easily slid down into the cave and then distributed our blackwater rafting inner tubes.

Brendon, while fearlessly splashing into the depths of the cave, dished out his rehearsed lines along with jokes that sometimes got a laugh. We trudged through the cold water, eventually walking into complete darkness. The mom barraged Brendon with endlessly useless questions about anything and everything between calls to her daughter of “Lola are you okay?” followed by annoyed replies of “Yes Mom, I’m fine.”

I frantically searched the water for eels.

We came to a cavern with a mini-beach formed by the s-shaped river where we were told to sit down. Next, Brendon has us all turn off our headlamps and quite suddenly; we were surrounded by the starry lights of thousands of glowworms. If I didn’t know I was in a cave I would have sworn I was lying under a night sky. Nicky and I lay back and took in nature’s constellation of bugs as the English mom asked questions and Brendon made jokes.

After a few minutes of the bug-produced light show, we turned our headlamps back on and floated as a unit back to the cave opening. Passing our get-in point, we tubed down a few dam created rapids and floated through an even more impressive section of the cave. At one point Brendon (I swear only for his own entertainment) suggested we jump from a rock back into the water whilst trying to land on our tubes. Seizing an opportunity to jump off of something, I clambered up the rocks and launched myself gracefully into the water. Nicky apprehensively came next, followed by the German. Boy was he hilarious! Awkwardly landing sideways, he bounced face-first into the water and for some reason beyond my comprehension, held onto the tube while his feet flailed in the air in an impossible attempt to right himself. Finally realizing that in order to breath he would have to let-go of the tube, the German popped out of the water with a shocked look on his face! Nicky and I tried to be polite, but could not contain our laughter as he failed miserably in trying to get back onto the tube, each attempt funnier than the last!

Ten minutes passed before everyone was ready to continue downriver. After another few minutes of floating, we ditched the tubes and half waded, half climbed our way down further into the cave. Giant stalagmite and stalactite (bubbly looking rock) pillars rose and fell from the walls and huge rock-formed bowls scattered the river bed and cave walls. We stopped to have a warm drink and a chocolate treat before squeezing through a network of holes and passageways back to our tubes. Turning our headlamps off, we used the lights of the glowworms to guide us back to the entrance of the cave. A daunting cliffside forced us to rock climb out of the cave and, reaching level ground again, we found ourselves in near-darkness, as night had fallen during our 5-hour epic adventure underground.

Score for the day…

Bocast (and Nicky): 1

The World: 0

       -Ashley

Fun Fact: Just to further prove how lax New Zealand is- most café’s (and some restaurants) position their restrooms in the back of their building. Customers must trek straight through the business’s kitchen to make it to the toilet! The truly astonishing thing: the chef’s don’t so much as blink as complete strangers walk right past their stainless steel counter’s exhibiting freshly-made scones and soup!