For me the prospect of going into a dark cave whilst wearing a wetsuit and helmet, carrying a rubber ring and walking through or floating across water that has black eels in it is not my idea of fun.
That said, so many people had told us great stories of their black water rafting adventure in the Waitomo Caves that I was convinced it was something I should experience. Rich as usual was filled with enthusiasm for our activity.
Spending a night near the Waitomo Caves on the west of the North Island provided a good stop over point on our four hundred mile drive between Wellington and Auckland. The drive was again easy, with well maintained roads and little traffic on them.
We stayed for one night in a holiday park cabin and took advantage of using the onsite gym. Rich even used the Worlds Strongest Man style tyres too, turning a massive one over four times!
The following morning we woke up to thick fog but by the time we drove ten minutes up the road to the Waitomo Caves, the fog had cleared and the sun was shining. We signed the waiver forms that we were getting so accustomed too and listened carefully through the safety briefing ahead of getting kitted up.
Before we went down into the caves we had to practise jumping backwards into water with a rubber ring underneath us. This was how we were going to jump down waterfalls in the caves and we had to prove we were up to the task before getting started.
We each took it in turn to jump backwards off a jetty into a shallow river. It was freezing cold and certainly woke me up so that I was ready and alert for going inside the caves.
Rich and I both passed the test and headed off to the caves with the rest of the group. As we descended towards the entrance Rich was eager to get started and I was fearful of animals in the water that I wouldn’t be able to see in the dark. Stupid phobia!
My irrational fear was made worse by the fact that as soon as we got to the water, one of the guides shone his torch down and pointed out a black eel right in front of us. Eeeek, get me out of here!
Not wanting to seem pathetic I gritted my teeth, sat into my rubber ring and floated off down the underground river whilst keeping my fingers out of the water as much as possible. There was no way I wanted an eel to have a nibble on them.
As we floated down the river and through the caves we had our head torches on to provide a bit of light in the pitch black world we were in.
At times the river was too shallow to float down so we had to walk through the shallows, taking great care to tread carefully on the uneven rock beneath our feet.
“We spent around an hour moving through the caves and saw thousands and thousands of glow worms.”
The real reason why I did Black Water Rafting was because I wanted to see the glow worms that live in the caves. There were walking tours available but having more of an adventurous tour was up our street or at least it was for Rich!
With the freezing cold water numbing our feet and hands as we travelled further and further through the caves we came to a point where we turned our head torches off and looked up. There in the darkness we saw the luminescent glow worms, hundreds of them adorned the top of the cave and I instantly forgot about the numbness.
There is real beauty in glow worms or at least there is when it’s dark and they are really far away so you can only see the glowing bit!
We weren’t able to take pictures inside the caves but our guides had a camera to take a few snaps along the way. We spent around an hour moving through the caves and saw thousands and thousands of glow worms.
The caves themselves were also very impressive, with stalagmites and stalactites on display and some places where the top of the cave was so high that our torches weren’t strong enough to light it up.
To be honest, the rafting part of the experience wasn’t very extreme, I would say it was tame. The fact it was in the pitch black gave me the feeling of fear which pumped adrenalin through my veins.
The part that didn’t disappoint was the beauty of the caves and the glorious glow worms. They were definitely worth a look.
Lambs on the loose 