The number one thing that Sean wanted to do on the North Island was to explore the Waitomo Caves. The Waitomo Caves are a huge tourist draw and most people go to either see the glow worms or to go blackwater rafting. We really wanted to see some glow worms and check out the caves but we didn't want to fight the crowds of the tourist buses so Sean looked into some alternative options. We decided to spend the day with a local guy who just ran a small guiding business out of his house in a less popular section of the caves and we ended up having a really good time.
Paul, our guide and owner of Green Glow eco-adventures, was a lot of fun and very knowledgable. He had been a guide in the caves his entire life and was one of the original guides for the now very touristy and popular Blackwater Rafting Co. One of the things that we liked about his adventure was that we could choose whatever activities we wanted, he was very into cave photography, provided all of the equipment and clothes that we needed (along with hot showers afterward) and allowed for free camping the night before.
We arrived at his house at 9 in the morning and got all geared up with rubber boots, wool socks, thermals, fleeces, helmets and climbing harnesses. Then we drove to the entrance to the cave we were going to explore. Paul is the only person allowed to guide in this particular cave system - it's owned by a local farmer who lives next door to Paul and they have made a deal to share the use/profits.
First we practiced using our harnesses and the caving belay device which was different from anything we had used before. Then we started our hike in the cave. Paul was particularly into cave conservation and one of the coolest things about this cave was that it hadn't been destroyed by crowds of people. He was very picky about where we went and told us exactly where to place our hands and feet at some points so we wouldn't further damage any structures. Paul had told us that he was in the process of updating his website and asked if he could spend a little extra time on photography and if we minded being on the website. He also said that he would give us a CD of all of the pictures that he took of us while in the cave. (If you look carefully on his website you can see quite a few pictures of us)
Walking around the cave was really neat and I enjoyed everything about it except for the giant eels. (There are a lot of eels in New Zealand). Paul said that they could get really big in the cave and even showed us some of the bites/scars he had from trying to mess with some of them. After that, I was only more than happy to get out of the water and to start climbing higher up (we had to anyway due to rising water levels as it was raining outside).
 |
| Hiking up on higher ground but we had to be clipped in as it was quite a far drop |
 |
| Cheesy pose for the website |
We spent the morning hiking around looking at different formations, we spent lunch looking for and eating under a cave roof of glow worms and then we spent the afternoon doing a lot of rappelling and abseiling. It was a very full and fun day. The glow worms were my absolute favorite but I wasn't too sad to be leaving the giant eels. More to come about the glow worms!
 |
| Practicing and getting ready to go down into some of the tighter spots |
As usual, BEAUTIFUL pictures!
Lana
That looks AMAZING!!