"Lights out!" shouts
the guide, as we glide down a river in a plastic tube through a cave. Suddenly,
above us appears our own personal night sky, but instead of stars, the dots of
lights above us are actually the bioluminescence of the thousands of glowworms
living on the roof of the rock tunnel.
Just to give some context, we'll backtrack a little. Chris had found
an advert for some black water rafting in a magazine while we were still down
on South Island. We'd chatted about it a few times, and eventually decided we
weren't going to do it - the combination of potentially tiny holes, cold water
and money put us off. Until. We were sat in a lovely (albeit slightly bizarre)
oversized barn, masquerading as a restaurant with beef casserole or beef
casserole on the menu. A few fellow guests from our holiday park had joined us,
and we were chatting about our trips so far when black water rafting came up.
Two of them had done it that day, and said it was great. They also mentioned a
website called bookme, which we hadn't heard of before, but has lots of
discounts for stuff around NZ, and happened to have 54% off black water rafting
the next day. With the reassurance that caving was a minimum, the water wasn't
that cold and some rare free wifi, we were soon booked to go.
Due to another guest having what can only be described as a crisis of
confidence part way through our first adventure, we ended up going twice, so
the rest of this description is a bit of a blur of both trips!
After arriving at the office (yes, I do have my swimwear, towel and a
spare pair of socks!), we were off to the changing rooms to be given probably
the most attractive (note the sarcasm) clothing I have ever worn. A wet suit,
jacket, wellies and some fantastic "cave pants", followed shortly by
a full body harness and helmet, just to complete the look. I was less than
comfortable, but ready for the first step - learning how to abseil (nailed it
:P), then on to the abseil itself, 27m down into the cave - I was too excited
and went first both times!
Once in the cave, we headed upstream for a while - the first time we
did the ultimate trust test - holding hands, torches off, trusting Hannah, our
guide to lead the way by the light of the glowworms. This was one of my
favourite bits of the whole experience, and I normally hate not being able to
see, but there was something pretty magical about it. The second time, the
current was noticeably faster as it had rained all night, so we walked upstream
with torches on, but stopped for a lovely chat from Rachel (our second guide)
about glowworms (which are actual glow-maggots, they eventually turn into flies
that can't eat, only survive for 3-4 days, and spend most of that time having
sex.) followed by actually finding some glowworms, which was awesome, because
we've seen the glow a few times, but never managed to find the creature itself.
They look a lot like maggots really :P
After this, the rafting started. One at a time, we sat down into our
inflated tyres that we'd carried upstream with us, and floated down the river,
sometimes faster, sometimes slower, sometimes bouncing off the rocks like a
water based bumper cars. At times we rafted in the dark watching the glowworms,
at times with our torches on making sure we didn't hit too many rapids/rocks.
Sometimes we went alone, and sometimes as a whole group together, laughing at
each other bumping into rocks, bumping into each other, or falling out as the
case may be. I was much better at staying in my tyre the second time, although
the only time I actually fell out was on the first trip, when Hannah was just
trying to help me stand up - luckily it was shallow enough that even when I was
kneeling the water didn't come to my hips, and the whole thing just ended up in
both of us in a fit of giggles.
On both trips we did a little bit of caving, although in slightly
different parts of the cave. And by we, I mean Chris did. I have squeezed
myself through small spaces before, and I know I can do it, and I know I don't
enjoy it, so I decided I didn't need to have a go this time. Chris seemed to
enjoy himself though, despite his previous reservations, and it was good fun
watching his feet disappear through holes, particularly the one where he went
downhill head first.
After all of the rafting excitement, we then had the less than
appealing task of walking back upstream again, as we had rafted back past our
exit point. With the strong current and a giant floating tyre that wanted very
much to go downstream, it was hard going at times, and I was glad when we got
to bits of rock and beach that we could walk along - even if it was just for a
few metres. We also stopped for a hot squash and bit of chocolate to give us a
sugar boost part way back, which gave us one last chance for torches off
glowworm time!
Once back to our exit point, we then had the minor detail of climbing
out of the 27m hole we had originally abseiled down into. Thankfully, there is
a reasonably nice section of rock, which mostly slopes, and has plenty of foot
and hand holes at good distances for climbing in wet suits and wellies (If a
kid tried to climb like that at work, I'd laugh and send them back to change -
not ideal!). After everyone has climbed out, we headed back to the glamorous
changing rooms for a hot shower (Rachel gets top points for putting the showers
on while we were getting our wet suits off so they were already warm when we
got in!) and dressed before heading back to the office to have a hot soup,
bread roll and a slideshow of pictures from the day.
Both days were fantastic and had different highlights, both our guides
were brilliant, and we're so grateful to Kiwi Cave Rafting for giving us a
second chance to finish the adventure - so glad we had a flexible plan with a
spare day!!
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