New Zealand - Waitomo Caves

Teresa Abseiling
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After leaving the smell of Rotorua behind we arrived in the tiny village of Waitomo to explore the famous caves. There isn't a lot to see or do in Waitomo apart from the caves but we walked into the centre of the village to visit the Tourist Information Centre to learn about how the caves were formed and also about the glowworms which are the caves star attraction. It was in Waitomo Caves where David Attenborough and the BBC filmed the glowworms for the documentary 'Life in the undergrowth' so we had high expectations.

Barney Abseiling
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There are a number of companies who offer trips into the caves with trips ranging from dry guided walks, wet activity trips or full on caving expeditions. We decided on a trip by a company called 'Rap, Raft 'n' Rock' which offered a 5hr trip that included abseiling, caving, black water rafting, seeing the glowworms and climbing.

Rap, Raft 'n' Rock

The next day we were picked up by 'Rap, raft 'n' Rock' and after we had signed in we were driven to an area near the caves entrance where we were kitted up into a wetsuit, white wellies, helmets, harnesses and fetching trousers. We needed a wetsuit as the water underground is only 8-10oC.

Black water rafting
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First up on the trip was an abseil (or 'Rap') 27m down the the entrance of the cave system. This went well for us and the 3 other people in our group who were Aussies. The Aussies were from Brisbane and seemed to pick on our Kiwi guide more than us Brits which made a change! After the abseil we flicked on our head torches and headed into the cave entrance. It was strange being so far underground in the dark! As we moved further into the cave we started to see smatterings of glowworms. After about 5 minutes we arrived in a 400m2 cavern and all turned off our lights so we were in darkness.....apart from the thousands of glowing blue/green lights coming from the glowworms above us. It was amazing and looked like stars in the night sky.

Glowworms
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Glowworm education time; Simply put - Glowworms are the larvae of the fungus gnat and have luminescent organs that produce the soft blue/green light. They live in hammocks made of mucus suspended from an overhang and produce silk threads covered in mucus blobs that they trail downwards to catch unwary insects that are attracted to the light. When an insect is caught the glowworm simply reels it in and dinner is served! Lesson over.

We walked back along the cavern with our lights out to fully appreciate the spectacle. It was then time to jump into inner tubes and 'Raft' along the underground river further into the cave system. This was really good fun and floating along while lying back and looking at the glowworms was pretty cool.

Black water rafting
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After rafting as far as we could it was time to do some caving (just what Teresa and her claustrophobia had been looking forward to) deeper into the system until we came to what is known as a 'squeeze' which is where the cave narrows into a small gap/opening that you need to crawl through. After seeing others get through without any problem Teresa plucked up the courage and with only a hint of Hyperventilation managed to brave the squeeze and made it through to the other side. After some hot squash and chocolate which our guide Paul had brought with him (just what we needed) we made our way through a couple more squeezes and headed back to the entrance passing more glowworms on the way.

Teresa conquering a squeeze
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The final part of the trip was to 'Rock' climb out of the cave system where we had abseiled in. This was really good and after we had all made it to the top we had a much deserved hot shower and got changed before we headed back to the office where we were welcomed back with a mug of tomato soup before looking at the photo's which the guide had taken on the trip.

The trip was brilliant and the glowworms were amazing and we were both glad that we decided to do an activity trip instead of just a dry tour without the 'Rap, Raft 'n' Rock'!

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Barney & Teresa x