Waitomo Caves

For our last adventure before the beginning of classes, Andrew, Alyssa, Ryan, Ben, and I rented a car and went on a caving adventure. The caves were amazing, but the car ride might have been the most thrilling. I went to pick up the car with Alyssa because she didn't want to drive, and I thought it would be fun to learn how to drive on the other side of the road. Then we found out there are higher rental insurance fees and more liability in the case of a crash if the driver is under 21. That ruled me out, and none of the other guys were with us, so Alyssa became the only one who could drive. She put the windshield wipers on instead of a turn signal the first two or three times, and we had to remind her to make "tight lefts and wide rights." She did fine, but the ride back at night seemed to take forever, as she was hitting the breaks whenever a car would pass.

Now about the caves. We arrived about an hour early, so we went to the village nearby and visited the Museum of Caves and laid around in the park for awhile. We got back and met out guide, Simon, who was a lot of fun. His secretary could probably get him for sexual harassment, but they seemed to both know how to take a joke. We took a ride up the hillsides in a large 4WD van, and it took quite a beating. Then it was time to change into wetsuits, "gumboots", and harnesses and take a quick training course. We learned that holding the rope out to the side was fast, and pulling it behind (thumb up the butt as Simon called it) was slow.

Then he led us to the edge of the cave, which is somewhere around 100ft deep. We swung out over the cave and lowered ourselves slowly to the floor. The views were spectacular and I made sure to take my time.

It really did look like Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel, and Simon told us the film crew from Planet Earth had spent a few days in the caves he was leading us into. The glowworms lined the entire ceiling of the caves, and we turned our lights off to see the full effect. It looked similar to a clear night sky. I tried to pet one of the eels that live in the cave, but it was shy and swam away. After making some tight (especially for myself) squeezes, blackwater tubing down the cave, and exploring some caverns, it was time for the rock climb back to the top.

I showered, changed, and was treated to some hot tomato soup at the end. The trip back probably seemed longer than it was due to how exhausted we all were. I know I enjoyed it, and I think the rest of the group did as well.