Caving in Waitomo

Trip Start Sep 13, 2006
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Trip End May 08, 2008


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Wednesday, November 14, 2007

It was a nice drive from the Coromandel all the way to Waitomo with a stop off in Hamilton.. my radio shat itself on the way so was none too impressed with that as it makes a shitty clicking sound now. I got into Waitomo pretty late and checked into Juno's which was another really nice farmhouse kinda hostel place pretty much in the middle of all the action too. Did my research on what i could do the next day. And off the next morning to check out the Blackwater rafting company and their Labrynth trip. It was a half day trip tubeing and swimming through a maze of caves up to 70m below ground.. thankfully they give you a wetsuit and a light attached to a safety helmet.. there was a group of about 12 of us who were all really sound and the first thing we had to do was jump off a pier on our tubes into a stream, brought back memories of vang veing again but no beer lao this time.
The whole area here in Waitomo is riddled with caves and you would wonder how some of these caves were ever found. Anyway it takes a few minutes to get used to the dark in the cave and the water is bloddy freezing even with the wetsuit on so off we went with our two guides walking and tubeing through the caves.. tubeing involves sitting in an inner tube of a truck and floating.. its great fun.. Got to jump off a big ass waterfall inside the cave too into complete darkness.. They get you to turn off your light at times to make it more interesting. The caves are full of glow worms too which are small maggots that grow a bright green colour in the dark so just to see them is pretty special, parts of the cave you can barely squeeze through while other parts are huge. The tour ended with a float down the stream and a lot of messing about and followed by a load of soup and bagels at the base. A hot shower and down to the Waitomo caveing museum for a look and some history. Couldnt get my camera wet in the caves so no photos but hopefully will get some emailed on.
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