After 6 weeks of being pissed on in Auckland, we bit the bullet & drove south under grey skies to the Waikato. It's the picture postcard scenery emblematic of Nz, very green & agricultural. Two hours later, just beyond the morgue village of Otorohanga, we stumbled upon some cave admin buildings, a couple of adventure companies & a few B&Bs, essentially Waitomo.
The place is known for 1 reason, its caves, home to glowworms & black water rafting. We stopped into the Black Water Rafting Co. to check if our Black Abyss tour was still going ahead the following day after recent flooding, & happily got the thumbs up...Great Success.
Since Otorohanga features a house dedicated to kiwis it made sense to end the curiosity & see what made them so unique. With a name like Kiwihouse you expect to be stepping on kiwis inside, not searching for a miserable 2, one of which was bloody sleeping. The conscious kiwi was no rocket scientist either. He just arsed about sticking its beak in the earth...a real entertainer. I knew they were nocturnal birds but we couldn't even take photos in the dark enclosure, a running theme the entire weekend. Apart from the 2, it was more of an impressive sanctuary for aquatic life & various reptiles.
Motoring back to the 'metropolis' we booked the renowned glowworm caves tour for the evening (35$ each). Beforehand we took a muddy reserve wander to the viewpoint overlooking desolate Waitomo & the museum of caves. Put simply the limestone bedrock in Waitomo has been dissolved by acid rain & thus caved in. We saw lots of fossils & rocks & glowowrms too needless to say.
Murphys Law prevailed when our guide told us that the boat ride part of our cave tour was cancelled because of rising water levels...woeful. To crown it off, no photos were permitted in the caves due to it being privately owned...farcical.. Kiri Te Kanawa & Bono got to sing in the amphitheatre area reputed for its acoustics but the interior of the cave was a poor relation of Aillwee Caves.
It was turning into a bit of a letdown until the previous groups guide told us we would be ok for a short spin in the boat...Sweet! We were able to go no further than 30 seconds round the corner in the boat but it was worth every second. The colossal amount of glowworms above us emitting blue-green dots of light was incredible. It's not until you see them up close you get a grasp of how amazing the phenomenon is.
They are actually gnats, which attach to the walls of the cave & lay eggs. The larvae that hatch emit the light. For 9 months they crap themselves releasing sticky lines acting as webs, catching food. Glowworms lose 2% of their energy as heat in comparison to light bulbs, which lose 96% so fill your bags when visiting.
Dusk had fallen by the time we left the cave & with the weather turning sour all that was left to do was eat in our hostel café & sleep. It's fair to say I'm not the lightest of sleepers so if the rain wakes me up you can be certain it's borderline tsunami outside. God must have had a king sized vindaloo that night & aimed for me as we had the king of all storms. I got the call later in the morning saying our tour was off...shock horror.
There were 2 other sights to see the next day, Marokopa Falls & Mangapohue Natural Bridge. The former is Nz's largest waterfall at 30m very striking due to the flooding but after Iguazu it couldn't match up. The latter is a 17m high limestone arch where the ground gave way underneath but still stands miraculously. And so ended part I...
It took 3 weeks for the rain levels to reduce somewhat & for us to return for the caving tour ($185 a ceann). We were all geared up like aquatic Bob the builders in wetsuits, hardhats & harnesses for the first half hour. We got to abseil 35m down into the cave, which was cool. We got to zoom across ropes on pulleys into total darkness. The instructors tried to keep everyone hydrated & energetic with snacks but I felt I almost changed sex with the water temperature. While tubing down the river inside we saw more glowworms up close. Climbing 2 waterfalls, which was a mega rush, finished it up. We were glad to be out of the water but on a high from the tour, which was more challenging than expected. And so ended part deux... Next up, Ski 09.
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