Waitomo. Wow. A tiny village 50km south of Hamilton with just 41 permanent residents. Fabulous campsite, spacious cabin, swimming pool and hot tub.
There’s lots on offer. Hundreds of caves to explore. Abseiling into caves. Diving in caves. Black water rafting in caves (where you’re in a dinghy in river rapids underground). Toobing in caves (the same as black water rafting but you do it in an inflated car inner tube). High Rope adventures. Pot holing. It is the underground adrenalin capital of the north.
And, not to disappoint, we did two amazing things today.
Yes, we did go caving but we opted for a sedate 3-hour guided-tour to see Glow Worms with a charming German Kiwi called Annette. After a 20 minute off-road drive where she pointed out the many fault lines and sink holes in the rocks, we followed a stream into a cave, boarded a dinghy and gently floated into the darkness. Turn the next corner and OMG! Imagine the night sky on a really, really clear night. Then quadruple the brightness of each star but all in complete darkness. We must have been on that boat for a good 20 minutes and in our party of twelve, no one spoke a word. It was awesome, and really quite moving – quick, move on before I need a Kleenex….
But seriously, it was spell-binding. Of course because it’s pitch black, picture taking was futile. Here's a picture of the entrance to the cave, just to show we were there. If you’re interested to see the blurb, go to their website at http://www.glowworm.co.nz/
There’s lots on offer. Hundreds of caves to explore. Abseiling into caves. Diving in caves. Black water rafting in caves (where you’re in a dinghy in river rapids underground). Toobing in caves (the same as black water rafting but you do it in an inflated car inner tube). High Rope adventures. Pot holing. It is the underground adrenalin capital of the north.
And, not to disappoint, we did two amazing things today.
Yes, we did go caving but we opted for a sedate 3-hour guided-tour to see Glow Worms with a charming German Kiwi called Annette. After a 20 minute off-road drive where she pointed out the many fault lines and sink holes in the rocks, we followed a stream into a cave, boarded a dinghy and gently floated into the darkness. Turn the next corner and OMG! Imagine the night sky on a really, really clear night. Then quadruple the brightness of each star but all in complete darkness. We must have been on that boat for a good 20 minutes and in our party of twelve, no one spoke a word. It was awesome, and really quite moving – quick, move on before I need a Kleenex….
But seriously, it was spell-binding. Of course because it’s pitch black, picture taking was futile. Here's a picture of the entrance to the cave, just to show we were there. If you’re interested to see the blurb, go to their website at http://www.glowworm.co.nz/
1 comment:
Hi Julie Tim and Emma,
You sound like you having a fantastic time, how's the suntans coming along.
Love Auntie Jackie x x x
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