Waitomo - a great day out
Salamander
Wed 19 Jan 2011 09:21
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It was good to have Darcy join us for a Kiwi
underground adventure (well we joined him as he kindly drove us there). Darcy
had to make do with us for company as for some strange reason nobody else wanted
to spen 4 hours in a cold, dark, water filled cavern. The Black Water Rafting Co
provide all the kit: wet suits, helmets, boots and harnesses and as you can see,
we all look so elegant-
 A little bit of training and you are off, abseiling
into the dark through a narrow neck and into a beautiful cavern.
  Whilst waiting for the others the three of us lay
on our backs in the dark watching the glow worms that magically appear as soon
as your eyes adjust after switching off your helmet lights.
The glow of the worms and black roof resembles a
beautiful night sky full of twinkling stars. In reality a damp cave roof full of
maggots with glowing poo: we all hoped nothing would fall off into our faces
while we were gazing upwards. (The light attracts flying insects which then get
stuck on the worms' web-like lines.)
A walk through to the flying fox zip-line which was
done in the pitch dark. What a great feeling, whizzing through the air,
completely unable to see anything. Unclipping involved a chin-lift and Murray
quickly spotted that all the blokes could do this, but all the girls needed to
be bounced off. By now it was snack time and we sat on the edge of the river and
munched Anzac cake and hot chocolate (or a GF plum).
This was followed by a leap off the ledge, a float
and then a staggering 'drunken walk' (sometimes short swim) through the cave
system. The acoustics in the cave are incredible, but unfortunately none of our
group could sing so Cam, one of the guides obliged. One lucky group a few years
ago had Rod Stewart along.
  By now we were all more than ready for another
snack before the final plunge through. A water slide, some scrambling and a
climb up through a waterfall (Caroline's favourite bit) and a scramble out to
daylight with a final pose from the three of us.
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