While we were mincing about doing cartwheels and jumping on the beach we met a couple of British travellers who had hitchhiked to the beach and offered them a lift back to the main road. At the last minute we had decided to push on with our driving in to the night, aiming to reach a campsite in Waitomo so that we could go on our caving adventure the next day. Wai is the Mauri word for Water, and Tomo is the word for Cave, this is the origin of the town of Waitomo's name.
After a rough and cold night sleep in the back of the car we stumbled with our coffee flasks to the Black Water Rafting Company and signed up for 'The Black Abyss.' This was a five hour cave exploration which involved a 35 meter abseil in to the cave, a zip wire through the darkness and black water tubing under glow worm lit ceilings.
The water in the cave was absolutely freezing and took away your breath as you jumped in to it on rubber tubes. To keep the hypothermia at bay we had regular stops for warm drinks and sugary flapjacks, some of us even poured the drinks in to our wet suits to stay warm. To exit the cave system we had to climb up a treacherous trio of waterfalls and everyone high-fived to be alive at the end of the exhilarating experience.
We had warm showers at the end while we were looking through our photos of the day, munching on bagels and hot soup, we also managed to pick ourselves up another bumper sticker to add to the collection.
Despite being chilled to the bone, we made tracks to gain another night and headed straight for Rotorua (also known as Roto-Vegas).
Peace and Love,
Jan and Sooz.
wiatomo - rotorua
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