Motorways=Highways

From Waitomo Caves

From Roapuke Beach we headed south east for our next adventure, Waitomo Caves. The glow worm caves were another must do, recommended to us. The drive there was relatively easy. A few gravel roads here and there, but mostly open and more importantly, marked motorways.

We arrived late afternoon and checked into to the Top 10 Holiday Park - soon to be a favorite of ours. Made reservations for the next morning at the caves and grabbed some questionable food at Curley's along with some really good beer. "Lion Red" has become the beer of choice for me down here. Unfortunately, it's $18 a six pack ($5 a draft). A scrabble match broke out in the bar as well. Tyler-1, Susanna-0.

At this point Susanna hasn't driven yet. So the next morning when we leave our site for the cave expedition, she's ready to give it a try. Having been a great navigator thus far as well as admiring my suburb driving, she gets behind the wheel. Not two seconds after she puts it in reverse do we plow right into the picnic table at our campsite. Ripping the chain that holds it down right through the wood. Absolutely comical. We both look at each other and crack up. It was fixable, sort of. You couldn't really tell the damage from a distance. Not discouraged a bit Sus hoped back in and took us there in style.

During our checkin we met the other travelers, soon to be cavers as well as our guide. After a few laughs about all our countries of origin, the guide said he noticed we have a bit of trouble driving in today. Susanna looked at him almost stunned and asked him if he say her back into the table earlier. He said no, but he say her signal left and turn right. At that point everyone got a good laugh out of it.

Our guide was an Aussie (Tim). Traveling sort of fellow that works along the way, to support himself, wherever he wants to be. Extremely nice and funny. There was another couple from Ireland (Ozzie & Loraine) and a girl from San Fran (Helen). The gear was a wetsuit, rubber boots, climbing harness, helmet with headlamp and battery pack. Before we descended we got a quick but thorough lesson in repelling. After that we were on our way.

A 30 meter drop of is how we got down to the cave. In my opinion one of the cooler parts of the tour. Maybe just because I'd never done any climbing before. We each lowered ourselves down one by one with Tim's supervision. Once down there we trekked to one end of the cave and then back to our point of entry to grab inner tubes to float down to the opposite end. At different points we'd turn off our head lamps and stare up at the cave ceiling. It was like looking at the stars on a clear night. At others, we'd hop out of the water and Tim shoved us into some small cracks to slither through. Tim took shots of the group to the entire time and fed us hot tea and chocolate half way through.

Just when we were all pretty tired, smelly, dirty and had seen enough glow worms for the day, it was time for our accent. No, Tim wasn't going to hoist us all up the 30 meters, we were going to climb out. Up a fairly vertical rock wall, cover in moss and wet leaves, we each climbed out (clipped onto a life line of course). A little unnerving, but truly satisfying when done. After cheering each other on for a successful day, we were brought back to change, shower, snack and buy a $20 CD of ourselves. We loved it. What an awesome experience!