Our last adventure in New Zealand before heading back to Chicago for further US travel was a visit to the Waitomo caves. We had both been looking forward to this particular trip for months–Kara especially since she has a serious love for caves, rafting, and making me do things that are scary. It was a bit rainy when we got to our destination, but we were psyched to go, and it looked like the weather was going to hold enough for us to safely do our tour.
As you can see in the pictures below, we did our tour with a group of Asian girls from many different places. They were nice and seemed like a fun group, although we didn't get to talk much because most of them didn't speak much English. It is a bit of an unfortunate regularity in the New Zealand adventure tourism industry that Asian tourists will sign up for activities they may be unprepared for (i.e. white water rafting without knowing how to swim). After confirming once then twice that our group partners could swim, our guide was eventually able to convince them to admit that only two of them could swim. I can't say we know why this happens so often, but Kara and I quickly took on unofficial babysitter assistant roles for our tour. That said, the girls did a great job, and Kara and I only had to help out once or twice.
After we all descended, we gathered our things and headed into the cave to look at glow worms, wading upriver against the current to find a good spot. We found a small hole to climb through on the way. The Asian girls were a bit skeptical at first sight, but when they saw that I fit through, they all figured they'd make it! Our spot to view glow worms was really good, probably the best I had seen in New Zealand, and we "star gazed" for a few minutes in the dark without our headlamps.
Climbing out of the cave was a long process mostly because everyone in the group was new to rock climbing. There were two sections in particular that required some more difficult maneuvering. Kara went before me, and had some trouble near the top of the entrance where the exit platform was situated. Going last was a bit strange for me because everything below me felt like infinite blackness, but I was able to make it out without much trouble.
We ended up being super late for our rendezvous with the tour company, and our guide spent a few minutes desperately calling the headquarters so that they didn't send out the rescue teams. It was a long tour. Eventually, Rachel was able to make her call and coax our van up the muddy ridge that had become even more slippery and treacherous from rain while we were in the cave. A couple hours later and a quick change and we were all good.
Back at the headquarters, Kara and I had the entire hostel to ourselves, so we shared a fancy dinner and watched most of a movie together. It was a nice place, but maybe still in the process of being completely renovated.
These couple of days were definitely an adventure! The next adventure will be wrapping up business in New Zealand and getting home to the States!