The Black Abyss

As expected, things here continue to be exciting and breathtaking. I am currently in Taranaki at my future flatmate's parent's home for the night. We are on our way down to Christchurch tomorrow and they invited us to rest at their house. Such hospitality.

Here is the recent activity that has been going on in my life:

We left Whangerei on Monday and headed to Goat Island, home of NZ's first Marine reserve. We planned to snorkel in the reserve, but due to high winds and an off season the snorkeling wasn't so good. Thus we passed and just walked around the reserve, trying to explore it as much as possible from land. It was truly beautiful: blue waters, a lovely gust from out at sea, a semi-black sand beach, a cliff of rocks that had been hollowed and shaped by years of seawater rushing up against its walls. We stayed at a fun little hippie-backpacker's camping/hostel area. It was rather funny actually, to walk out to the tent after cooking dinner in the kitchen and see a cow standing right next to our tent. Turns out, some cows had escaped their pen and felt it necessary to graze right where we were staying. Go figure. Actually, I have found it very common to see stray animals who have fled their pens grazing on the side of the road. To me it is rather tragic, and Brett cannot for some reason comprehend why it bothers me that these animals are out making themselves vulnerable to every passing car. Oh well, NZ has plenty of sheep and cattle...I really shouldn't worry all too much.

We woke from a night with the cows to a mediocre day, not at all promising for snorkeling so instead we went horseback riding on the beach with a local touring company. It was only Brett and myself and definitely a fantastic experience to get back on a horse. Happily the sun decided to shine for us and it turned out to be a fantastic time.

We travelled then on Tuesday to Waitomo, the place I decided that I wanted to go to the most before I even left the US. In short, Waitomo is filled with underground caves in which you can take any number of interesting tours and adventures. So after we woke this morning (wed) we made our way to The Legendary Blackwater Rafting Company to begin our five hour excursion.

THe first hour was spent getting into our gear and practicing abseiling. We got into some really attractive wetsuits, undershirts, booties and overcoats. I really wanted to take these items home with me but they wouldn't let me because then they would have to let everyone. They we got out helmets fully equipped with a little miner's light on top. After we got all of our hot underground clothes we put on our harnesses and made our way to the caves.

Before we got into the caves we practice some abseiling on some little makeshift course the company had put together. For those of you who don't know, abseiling is kind of like rapelling except you are kind of just dangling in midair and letting yourself down slowing into a hole, there is not really any pushing off of walls unless you need to adjust yourself. So we practiced how to stop ourselves with the tension of the ropes against our hips and then headed to the hole.

The hole into the Ruakuri caves was about 35m deep and as dark as a hole that deep into the ground can get. They took us out onto a metal walkway that hovered over the hole, attached us to the abseiling rope and let us fly. Well, not really, they let us fall...slowly...using ropes. So one by one we lowered ourselves into this cave. It started out really wide but as I got deeper, it became so narrow I had to scrunch myself up to fit through it. I had no idea just how much foreshadowing this little experience was.

Once we all made it to the bottom we started walking the caves...and these my friends, are real caves. None of that Howe Caverns nonsense (for those of you in upstate NY), these are real, dripping all over the place, limestone crazy caves. Our guides Tim and Ben did a great job in teaching all about the unique features of these underground tunnels.

After walking a short while and learning a bit more we came to a dark drop off with the sound of rushing water beneath it. Here Tim informed us to turn off our headlamps. One by one he harnessed us each to what seemed like a sort of zip-line and on the count of three would launch us in complete darkess into a larger cavern. As we flew down through the air we got our first good sight at the stars of the cavern: gloworms. Gloworms are little larvae that, when hungry, light up to attrack prey. They they catch their prey in little strings that dangle from their bums. These light up the cavern ceiling like a clear night sky and the zip line reminded me much of Space mountain only cooler.

After we all descended on the zip line we were treated to tea and biscuit, a seemingly snobbish thing, but we later found completely justified since the next part of our adventure involved us jumping off a ten foot cliff into the freezing cold water of the Ruakari caves. From there, on inner tubes, we pulled ourselves up the cave, against the current. Once reaching a certain point, Tim formed us all into a sort of long boat and let us float with the current in the darkness to enjoy the faux night sky. Once we reached our original starting point we abandonned our tubes and began to swim. And by swim, I mean float quickly with the current feet first. It was amazingly cold, but amazingly fantastic. This part, we later discovered, is normally walked, but due to the extreme rainfall lately, the water was much MUCH higher than normal. It was so high in fact, they weren't even supposed to take us into the section of the caves that they did!

From there we went down a waterfall-slide and continued to float and boulder where we could. At one point Tim had us turn our lights off and navigate the narrow crevases in complete darkness. Needless to say I nearly spazed and thanked my lucky stars (or gloworms!) that Brett was with me. We found our way back into the water and continued to float, finally coming to a ledge where they stopped us and fed us more hot liquid and some chocolate. Much needed by this time.

After eating we continued on and came to the portion which involved more caving than anything. Here we squeezed ourselves in and out of narrow straights, crawled along the bottom of the caves, through holes, over bridges. There was one portion where, if desired, we could go beneath and remarkably low pass in which you actually had to hold your breath and pull yourself along underwater. Although it was only two meters long, it was rather scary. But of course I did it. We were then sent through some more holes on our own with the challenge to find our own ways out. After a bit of panic and finally discovering the exit, we found ourselves waiting at the natural doorway (ie a small hole) of the first of three waterfalls. Here they took us, one at a time, and assisted us in climbing UP these raging rapids. But rather than physically asist us, they told us how to climb, the best places to put our feet and then spotted us. And when I say waterfall people, remember what I said about the rainfall. These waterfalls, typically a trickle, were huge, and we were not really supposed to be climbing them. But hey, this is NZ and we looked like a tough crew so they let us.

I climbed the first waterfall with little problem though it is scary to work against the rapids in which every footstep the falls try to push you back. After reaching the top we continued on to a smaller waterfall that just required a bit of effort walking. Then the final waterfall, the one that led us out of the cave and into a little oasis, I did completely alone, with no advice, and received a compliment about my toughness. Figures. Ha.

After emerging from the black abyss and looking back at the hole we came out of, I was astonished. There is no way in hell I would have ever gone down a hole like that, and it made me realize just the intrigue that caves really present. Imagine walking by this hole and seeing a group of people emerge. There was no indication that any sort of realm existed below this little waterfall running into the ground, but in fact there was, and we had seen it all.

So that was my day at Waitomo...and now I sit in Taranaki, after seeing Mt Taranaki (only on the road while driving here) where The Last Samurai was filmed. What a day. I am exhausted from driving and ready for bed. I need to get to Chch so I can start making some money. Until then.

-Nic