Waitomo

On Saturday, after Cory rounded, we hopped in the car and drove the two hours to Otorohanga. We stopped there for lunch at the Thirsty Weta and then walked around the Kiwi House and Native Bird Park. We both totally love this sort of thing, and it was the first time we’d seen live kiwis. They are nocturnal, so they are kept in a darkened enclosure during the day, but you can see them moving about. We were also there for a feeding time, which was awesome. The two birds we saw were Western Brown Kiwi, and they were much larger than we had thought. The rest of the park was really neat, too, but the kiwis totally stole the show.

We drove on to Waitomo, where we were staying for the night. After dinner at the Huhu Grill (huhu being a large grub – none on the menu, thanks), we headed back to our hotel and rested up for the big adventures of the next day.

In Maori, “wai” means water and “tomo” means shaft or hole, so you can get a pretty good idea of what adventures might come our way. The Waitomo region is famous for its caves – about 300 have been discovered and mapped so far. There are three main caves, however, that are well-trafficked. We were headed to Ruakuri. The story is that the cave was discovered when two dogs (rua + kuri) surprised some Maori, appearing to come from no where. They tracked the dogs back to their den at the cave entrance, thus discovering what would be a major money maker for the area, at least until the European settlers took over. (The land was recently handed back to the Maori tribes of the area.)

On Sunday, we went on a guided adventure tour of Ruakuri. I really like the term “guided adventure” – you are offered just enough excitement without much possibility of danger. And this clearly is the intent of the numerous guiding groups in Waitomo. Our guides were friendly, knowledgeable, and took every opportunity to make you think about any fears you might have without really freaking you out.

The adventure began with our second wetsuit experience. We suited up in heavy wetsuits, complete with jackets, booties, and a balaclava if you had long-ish hair. Topping the look off were our helmets, head lamps, and gum boots. A fright right from the start – they wanted to take a picture. The one consolation was that it was clear from looking around that no one looked good in this get-up, not even the guides who had wetsuits that fit them.

We did a quick training on rappelling or abseiling as it is called here (and perhaps in the rest of the world). The mechanism for slowing your descent was different than what I had used before, and I will say it took a little bit of time to get used to it. Our guide had warned us that if we panicked and used the wrong hand to stop ourselves in an emergency, we could lose a thumb. Fantastic.

After the training and warnings, we each headed, one-by-one, down the tomo at the cave’s entrance. I worried both our guide and Cory, who was still up top, by momentarily forgetting all the training in my excitement. But I got focused, made it down safely, and can report that I still have all my digits. I did see a cave weta (sort of a large cricket/grasshopper found only in NZ) on the way down, which was really cool.

After we all got down the shaft, we walked a ways, our path lit by our headlamps. Then it was time for a flying fox, which I think is pretty much a zipline – done in total darkness. We each zipped along ‘til the end where our guide helped unhook us. As you got your bearings, you realized you were right along the edge of a high river bank, the dark water moving slowly along below you.

After a quick snack, we each grabbed an inner tube and jumped down into the cold river water. This is were a well-fitted wetsuit would’ve been nice, as the cold water filled my boots and slipped into my suit. Yowza! But the cold was quickly forgotten as we got our first really great view of glowworms. Glowworms are the larvae of the fungus gnat, and can live wherever there is a dark, damp area and access to a food supply. The glow they give off is essentially their urine, stored in their tail or applied to a sticky string that they dangle to attract and capture small bugs that have made their way into the cave. Nice, huh? But they are really cool to see. We walked and swam a ways upstream, with the guides pointing out cave formations and talking about the limestone, sandstone, and mudstone that made up the caves. Then we linked together, turned off our headlamps, and floated back downstream, heads tipped back, watching the glowworms above us.

A ways downstream, we regrouped and again walked and swam a bit further. Our guides were quick to remind us to keep an eye out for eels and to point out other interesting cave formations. We had a few areas we had to wiggle and crawl our way through, which is, of course, about the time someone pointed out the eel they’d seen. We spotted one more large one in a small, dark alcove – he is often there and the guides had named him Cecil. Cute, huh?

After a few more squeezes through tight spots, you could begin to hear water rushing. Our path out involved climbing up the shaft of two small waterfalls. I probably would’ve been okay, but our guide’s job was to tell us where to put which hand/foot. (Remember that “guided adventure” thing?) I knew I wasn’t great with left versus right, but I am also not good at following oral commands apparently. Now I know what those stressed out students feel like! Anyway, without too serious of an incident – just a little foot slip – I made it out. Cory is much better with left versus right, and he made it out with no problems. It didn’t feel like we’d been underground all that long, but it had been about 3 ½ hours.

We did the touristy thing and bought a CD with pictures from our adventure. If nothing else, the shot of us all in our gear is probably worth the cash anyway! Maybe we’ll make duplicates and it can be everyone’s Christmas gift from us! Just Kidding…