Roadtrip: Wild Waitomo Water & Wetas!

Got up and made breakfast of toast and jam, then gathered our bits together for the day’s adventures, before heading off to the Legendary Black Water Rafting Company just a short drive away in Waitomo. I was really excited about this, as lots of people from the bus had done caving in Waitomo the other day and they had all really enjoyed it. We were going to a different place to them, but I figured it would still be good.

When we arrived at the centre, we were really surprised and delighted to find out that we were the only people booked in for the ‘Black Abyss’ tour, as our two guides (Doug and Lloyd) explained that seeing as there were only two of us it meant we would probably get to do some extra stuff. Great news!

First we got kitted up in a delightful outfit of wetsuit with brown undershirt, wetsuit jacket, shorts, booties, plastic lace up boots, ninja hood, helmet and harness. We looked ace! Once we were all set to go, we hopped into the mini bus and went to Ruakuri Cave (Ruakuri meaning ‘two dogs’) the real start of our adventure!

Doug gave us a quick lesson in abseiling with this particular type of kit and we practiced by abseiling down a not-very-steep grassy hill, just to get used to it. Then it was time to actually abseil. Mike went first, dropping down into a rather narrow, dark hole in the ground. After a minute or so, Doug said it was my turn and I suddenly got nervous; I didn’t know why, as I like abseiling and have done it before, I guess abseiling 37m down through a rocky hole in the ground into dark nothingness is a touch different to abseiling down a 10m bit of scaffolding at a Scout campsite in broad daylight! After an initial moment of panic when stepping off the edge of the ledge, this subsided and I actually found the experience most non-terrifying and rather incredibly cool. The hole got narrower and darker and for a moment, as the rock walls enclosed around me, I did wonder if I would make it through the gap, but from above, Doug assured me that I would fit through fine! This rocky bottleneck then opened up and I could see the really impressive cavern, with really unusual, layered, rock walls. I think it must have taken me two or three minutes to make it from top to bottom. Once at the bottom, I was reunited with Lloyd and Mike, then Doug literally dropped out of the air next to us (I think he must have just jumped off the top, as I had barely landed myself before he appeared!).

Lloyd showed us some fossilised shells in the rocks and we made our way, walking through some narrow rock tunnels, clambering over rocks and ducking under low hanging stalactites, until we came to a point where the pathway lead to a dark cavern, which was so dark we couldn’t see anything inside it. There was a loud, steady banging noise emanating from the darkness, which was a little odd and I was then surprised when Lloyd hooked me up to a cable overhead – it was a flying fox, so I then had to hang on and swing off into the darkness –it was super fast and super dark – and the banging noise got faster and louder! When I finally stopped and dangled from the zip line, Doug appeared and unhooked me, then we crouched down while Doug resumed banging on a makeshift drum and waited for Mike to zip down, followed shortly after by Lloyd.

The guys got us to sit down on the edge of the rocks for a break, with a dark river flowing fast beneath us, then Doug suddenly presented us with a cup of hot chocolate and a delicious Anzac cake! Once we had rested and enjoyed our snack, Doug showed us to a pile of large rubber rings – I think they were inflated inner tubes from some large tyres – and we selected one. He then led us to the edge of the rocks and Lloyd demonstrated how we needed to leap into the water, holding the tyre onto our backside, landing on the tyre on the river 4m below. It didn’t look particularly warm, but instead dark and rather scary. After I had psyched myself up, I jumped off the rocks and hit the water successfully straight, although completely shocked by the temperature which was so cold, it took my breath away! I paddled myself over to Lloyd and looked up, to see Doug coaxing Mike to make the leap. Lloyd and I shouted encouraging words (“Come on you big wuss!” being my best attempt!), then with a look of desperate uncertainty, Mike sprung off the rocks and landed in the water where we were; his face showed the same shock as mine had with the temperature!

From there we bade farewell to Doug and followed Lloyd, paddling up the river in the darkness and then pulling ourselves along on a rope. As we went along, we looked up and high above us on the ceiling of the cave we could see thousands of little green lights – glow worms. Lloyd told us all about them and then we stopped and had a good look at them. They are fascinating creatures, if a bit odd. The cave was beautiful though as their little glow worm backsides produced luminescent green poop, which twinkled in the darkness like lots and lots of tiny little fairy lights!

We paddled a fair way and then Lloyd showed us a really interesting stalactite which looked uncannily like Gandalf! Apparently the stalactites and stalagmites take a century to grow one cubic centimetre (for those imperial people reading this, that really is not very big at all!) and Gandalf wasn’t particularly big, but his size would indicate that his is over 20,000 years old, which was rather amazing! Lloyd then towed us back along the river and we were able to lay back on our tubes, staring up at the darkness and appreciating the beauty of the glow worm caves – Lloyd made a really loud banging noise against the water and the shock of the vibrations the sound caused made the glow worms glow brighter – it made the cave light up momentarily, then they continued twinkling away.

Once back at the point we’d jumped in, we hopped out of our tubes and started wading through the water in the opposite direction. This began our walk further through the caves. The terrain was rocky and the water varied in depth constantly – sometimes ankle deep and other points it was waist deep or even that bit too deep to walk, so we had to swim! Lloyd pointed out that some of the passageways necessitated the “drunken stumble” as the ground was so uneven, it made it hard to walk straight and sure enough I kept falling over into the water which was rather entertaining! We then came to a mini waterfall where there was a metal slide to get down it and Lloyd made us go down it head first which again made for a funny sight! The water actually flowed really fast at some points but we noticed that we were surprisingly warm, considering how cold we had been when we had first leapt in.

A little way along, we came to another waterfall – a bit bigger this time and at the top of it we bumped into a group of other cavers (doing a shorter tour of the caves than the one we were doing), they still had their tubes with them, so after they had jumped down the waterfall on their tubes and floated off down the river, we jumped in feet first and took a swim a little way, before then finding some rocks to walk along, at the edge of the river. Lloyd showed us a passageway to squeeze through and once we had negotiated our way through that, we climbed out and up to a ledge which Lloyd told us to climb.

Ahead of us was a really narrow tunnel which we had to literally slide along, using our knees and elbows. The ground beneath us was rock that was covered in thick, slippery mud, which actually made it easier to move along as it was so slidy. I kept bashing my head on the low rock ceiling – but thankfully this made me realise how effective the helmet was! Lloyd slithered off ahead and we followed suit, then came to an opening, where the mud disappeared and was replaced once again by rock. Lloyd told us the next section was even narrower and was called the ‘rebirth’ as we had to fit through the rocks so tightly! It was quite funny as I had to twist around and go through the gap horizontally, but head first, then lever myself out at the other end. There, we had a rest and then clambered down the rocks back into the water and tried to de-muddify ourselves a bit, before Lloyd presented us with some chocolate and a cup of hot orange squash!

In the next cave we walked through, we saw an eel lurking in the corner and a short distance after that we climbed up some rocks and into the next cavern, where Lloyd introduced us to a really large eel called ‘Cecil’ who swam over to us and had a good nose about (apparently some of the tour guides bring food down for Cecil, so when he sees people he assumes he is going to get fed!), before swimming off back into the darkness and allowing us to pass through. We continued making our way through the river, walking some of the way, climbing other bits and swimming the rest.

Lloyd then brought us to a point where we had to climb up two waterfalls, it was quite mad as it was actual rock climbing, only without any ropes or harnesses – admittedly they was only about 4-5m high but it required finding footholds and handholds in the bare rock, whilst the water gushed down past and over us! As I climbed, it made me think how rubbish I am usually at climbing when I am on Scout camps etc and I wondered where on earth I was finding the strength and nerve to do this! Once at the top of the two waterfalls, I felt rather elated at having achieved it!

Onwards further and we came to another section to walk/clamber/swim along, then Lloyd led us to the edge where we climbed up onto the bank over a little wooden fence, onto a boardwalk. This walkway is along the route that they take ‘dry tours’ and led to an immense cavern, full of stalactites and stalagmites, some so large that they must be hundreds of thousands of years old. The cavern was illuminated by lights which had been carefully positioned to show off the majestic beauty of these natural forms along with the pools of water which reflected them endlessly.

Having seen those, we headed back to the river and climbed over the fence once again. Lloyd then gave us a choice as to whether we make our way out of the caves or go on one last adventure down “The Slot”. The attraction (if you can call it that) of this particular section of the caves was that it would involve passing through a place where we would be guaranteed to see some wetas. Having not seen these indigenous creatures already, I decided that it would be a good opportunity to get another tick on my list of NZ things I’ve seen, so we went for it. They had been described to me as insects a bit like crickets, so didn’t sound too bad. Lloyd led us to the weta cave; another section we had to crawl into. It was really dark and he told us that they would react to the head torches, so we switched them off and Lloyd used his to find a weta to show us. He shone his torch on one and it was just like a cricket, only with slightly longer legs and antennae – not too bad. Lloyd then said that he’d see if he could find a bigger one to show us and shone his torch on a section of rock above our heads, illuminating a few of them, including one which was bigger, again with long, wiggly antennae – not so cute. As our eyes adjusted to the light, suddenly we were aware of a large number of weta, crawling all over the place and I got a bit spooked – Lloyd assured me that they would not bite us or anything, but that they might jump onto us; I did not like that idea one little bit, if that happened I would surely squeal in a most undignified fashion! With that threat in mind, I hurried along the cave, avoiding touching the cave walls or floor with my hands and trying to keep my head as low as possible, to avoid making any contact with the weta so that they would not leap on me!

We arrived at the “The Slot” – a 5m sheer, vertical drop downwards between a very narrow gap made by two rock faces. Lloyd looked up and pointed out a weta, just above Mike’s head – it was huge, its body was about 6 inches long, plus the ridiculously long legs and antenna; I told Mike not to look at it but he did and then promptly got freaked out! It was creeping me out too and this helped inspire me to get down the Slot as fast as possible - I had to brace myself between these walls by pushing my back against one side and wedging my feet and knees against the other side, then edging my way down until I could jump (or rather elegantly fall) the rest of the way. I sat in the dark at the bottom of the slot waiting for Mike and Lloyd to appear, desperately hoping that no wetas had followed me down – I did not turn my headlamp on for fear of seeing them! Thankfully nothing seemed to be crawling on me and Lloyd led us the last little way up and over some rocks, to a wide open section of cave, from where we could see water gushing but also daylight – the first we had seen in 5 hours! We clambered up the rocks and out of the cave.

After a short walk back to the minibus, Lloyd took us back to the centre and we got changed out of our wet gear, back into our civvies. We sat down with Lloyd and looked at the photos from our tour (keep watching this space – I will upload some of them shortly) and were presented with a much deserved bowl of soup and a toasted bagel – just what the doctor ordered to warm us up after having expended so much energy in quite a cold environment.

We said our goodbyes and thank yous to Lloyd (Doug had gone off on another tour) and headed off. Our next brief stop on our way back to the hostel was at a farm, where we got to see and feed some ostriches (they were massive and really rather prehistoric looking), a miniature cow and her miniature calf (they really were tiny!), some miniature pigs (incredibly cute and snuffly) and two miniature alpacas. Everything at the farm was miniature, other than the ostriches!

After chilling out at the hostel, we headed off for a drive to a nearby town called Te Kuiti which had been recommended to us as somewhere we could get some dinner. We eventually ate at a little take away Chinese/fish and chip shop, as once again we had left it a bit late (in NZ terms) to get food seeing as it was 8.00pm, so that was literally the only place still open! Then we headed back to the hostel and had a few beers, feeling absolutely shattered from a really fun day.