After an early start we got to Waitomo caves. Jonathan & Sophie had been here before on the Kiwi bus. Jonathan recommended a different caving company to the one that Stray use. Kerry the driver was very accommodating and got us booked into Black Water and drove us up there after dropping the other passengers off.
We went on the Black Abyss tour, which, after we had changed into full wet suits involved a huge abseil down through a small hole in the ground which opened up to a massive cavern. The caves are nothing like the Marble Arch Caves back home, here there is minimal man made intrusion to the natural caves, the only lighting is from the head torches on your helmets and the only man made walkway is right at the beginning of the tour.
After a short walk through some small passageways where we stopped to look at stalagmites and stalactites etc we came to the end of the passageway. There was a very ominous looking black hole with a rope disappearing into the darkness beyond. Graham was at the head of the group and was worried to see the smiling smirk of the tour guide as he was called forward to be hooked up to the rope. The plan was that you were to use the rope as a zip line BUT you had to turn off your head torch… just to spice things up a bit!!!! When you jump off into the darkness through the hole and feel yourself accelerate, you almost miss the spectacular sight of thousands of glow worms lighting up the cavern, it was like swinging through the Milky Way. Just when you were beginning to get your breath back suddenly you jolt to a halt at the end of the zip line, and after a bit of swinging about you end up hanging in the darkness…. stretching out your toes searching for any available purchase… thoughts of turning on your head torch start to enter you head… when all of a sudden, from the darkness, beside your right ear a friendly voice says “Hello, nice trip?” then a head torch flicks on and the guide who has been waiting at the bottom helps you unhitch from the zip line and drop the last six inches to the cave floor. Nice touch!!
You are invited to sit at the edge of the cave and turn off your head torch to await the screaming arrival of the next caver. When the rest of the party have made their way down the zip line the group sits on the edge of a 3m drop into a river running through the cave. Hot juice and some biscuits are passed out to ensure everybody is warm. Whilst munching on my biscuit I noticed something moving in the water, when I drew it to the attention of the guide I was told not to worry as it was only Gollum…. It turns out that Gollum is a huge eel who regularly frequents this spot. This would not be something worthy of note, had it not been for the large pile of inner tubes beside us in which we were expected to jump off the 3m ledge bum first into Gollum’s domain. At this point I was very glad I had chosen to take a pair of the optional gloves. We all took turns to launch ourselves off the ledge and splash down into the river, the impact firmly seating us into the rubber rings.
When everybody was in the water we used our hands as we paddled up the river against the flow, looking at the rock formations and deposits left by the water seeping into the caves over long periods of time. The guides showed us glow worms and the threads they use to catch their prey. Eventually we came to a place where a waterfall came in through the roof of the cavern, at this point all head torches were turned off and we silently drifted back down stream to the place where we had jumped in. It was amazing to drift slowly past the caverns lit only by the glow worms, very relaxing and serine. We threw the tubes back up onto the ledge and continued downstream wading with the water up to our chests, and swimming where required.
At some points the roof of the cave came right down to the water level and you had to stoop, stick a finger in one ear and with your head turned to one side scrape your helmet along the cave roof with half your head in the water. This did not last long, however, on one occasion, we did have to make our way around a corner like this which made it seem longer and added to the feeling of claustrophobia. There were several squeezes to get through and three waterfalls to climb up in order to get out of the caves.
I was amazed by the range and level of things we did making our way through the caves, some of the climbing was quite difficult but it was all very achievable, enough to stretch those who were keen, but not too much as to defeat those not so confident. The guides pitched it at exactly the right level, although they did always seem to have a plan B if it seemed too much. It was good to get out of the wetsuit and climbing gear, have a hot shower and some hot soup in the Black Water rafting centre before getting back on the bus and heading on to Ha Hei in the Coromandel region.
At Ha Hei Kerry the bus driver fired up the BBQ and cooked up some cracking steaks in a Teriyaki marinade. It started to rain a bit so we moved indoors and finished eating. Graham and others went to check out the Hot Water Beach around midnight. It is a small area and has become so popular that it is a bit of a waste of time to go during the day. There was at least one other group of around 15 people already there when we arrived. They had dug quite a big pit but it didn’t look like they had found too much hot water. We faffed around for a while but after half an hour or so gave it up as a bad job and went back to the hostel.
www.blackwaterrafting.co.nz