Journey to the Centre of the Earth
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2008
1
45
82
Trip End
Dec 30, 2009
Taupo,
North Island,
New Zealand
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Mrs was short, round and voluble. We all had to fill in a health declaration first with details of who was to be contacted if there was any problem. At the safety briefing, we were asked if we had any questions. Yes, she said. She wanted to be sure that if she died underground, her children were not phoned on that number as they would get a terrible shock. She turned out to be a great sport and managed absolutely fine, happily surviving the trip.
The next part of the entertainment involved struggling into a rather damp wetsuit which in itself was rather flattering, holding everything in etc. We then had to put on a baggy pair of shorts which looked a bit like a nappy finishing off the ensemble with a helmet and light and a pair of rubber boots. Wetsuit etiquette: don't pee in it for warmth, it makes it smell.
We are then driven up the road and issued with a rubber ring similar to a car inner tube and practice sitting in it and jumping backwards off a ledge into water. Finally we walk to the gully, slither down into a small hole and stumble our way down to a stream with our two guides. Sometimes we walk, sometimes we lie prone on our tubes and and sometime we sit in them and float. In some parts, there is very little clearance. At times we pick our way across rocks with water up to our ankles, on other occasions we have to wade through water up to our chests (neck if you are one of the short Burnetts). The need for the jumping practice outside becomes clear as we have to jump off several ledges into underground pools.
There are glow worms all along the cave roofs. At one point we emerge from a side channel into the main stream, climb onto our tubes and form an 'eel' (one behind the other floating with your feet held by the caver in front). Young German woman says to Andrew: "I must take your ankles now" which he found entertaining for some reason. We turn off our head torches and float looking up at a green milky way.
Glow worms are the larvae of a fungus gnat (looks like a large mosquito but without the mouth - best sort in J's opinion). The larva glow worms produce a soft green light. They attach themselves to the roof of the cave in a sort of glue hammock and then weave sticky threads that trail down and catch insects that have been attracted to the light. The brighter the worm shines the hungrier it is. They stay like this for about 6 months before the pupa stage (a bit like a cocoon). The gnat emerges after about 2 weeks, mates but only lives for about 2-3 days because it has no mouth to feed.
We are a bit cold when we emerge but are shipped back to the base where, after being peeled out of our wetsuits, we have tomato soup and bagels. A good trip: highly recommended.
At this point, we had intended to head to a the Tongariro National Park to do a celebrated day mountain walk, the Tongariro Crossing. This would have included climbing near Mt Ngauruhoe, Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings film. Unfortunately the weather is forecast to be wet with low cloud for the next couple of days although it is fine now. We abandon that idea and go to Taupo, a lively town on New Zealand's largest lake offering all sorts of action possibilities such as tandem parachute jumping (no chance - Janice won't even go tandem on a bicycle) and jet boating.
