Spelunkering

This past Saturday the Adventure DTS got to go spelunking in Waitomo Caves. We did the Black Abyss adventure which is a 5 hour trip down in the caves. It was an absolutely amazing time. We were split into two groups to make traveling in the caves easier, so one group had to be ready to go at 6:45am and the other at 7:45. I was put in the 7:45 group, and the only girls in it were me, one of my roomates, and the staffer Madeline. I didn't have to get up any earlier than usual so I took my sweet time and thoroughly enjoyed my eggs for breakfast. It took about an hour and a half to get there, and once we signed forms that we wouldn't sue in case of injury and such, we headed down to these tents to get suited up. We were told to wear our swimsuits underneath, and then everyone was given these thermal tops and a long sleeved and long pants wet suit. It was quite a struggle to get into. I felt like a seal.

After we were all suited up, we hopped in a van to go to the cave entrance. Two guys were leading us and they were pretty entertaining, the entire trip they'd make all kinds of suggestive jokes (such as telling us to tighten our helmets so they don't wobble, otherwise we'll look like a dick. Not even kidding.) and would poke fun at people in the group. I thought they were pretty funny, but not everyone in my group enjoyed them. We had a brief equipment/safety lesson before we all lined up to go abseiling (lowering ourselves with a rope) into the cave. It looked like a pretty wide entrance at first, but there was one point on the way down where I had to wedge myself through this super narrow opening. If I was claustrophobic I probably would've had a panic attack. Once everyone got to the bottom of the shaft, we all turned on our head lamps and followed our guides down a passageway. It wasnt terribly cold in the cave, though it was really damp and there were glow worms all over the cave ceiling, which was cool. After a while we came to a zip line in the cave. They had us all turn off our head lamps so the person whose turn it was to zipline couldn't see ahead of them. Randomly while someone was ziplining we would hear a loud bang, which I never really found out what that was, but the guides wouldn't tell us so it was probably just them messing with us.

Once we had all ziplined, they took our harnesses and had us sit on a rock as they passed out these delicious cookies (which I got the recipe for) and hot chocolate. After snack time, we were led to this ledge near the river tht ran though the cave system and everyone grabbed a innertube to jump in. It was such a shock to the system as the cold water rushed over me, but the wetsuits worked really well, and soon I felt comfortable. We paddled down the river a bit and got a little lesson on the glow worms that inhabited the caves then made a chain with our innertubes as our guide pulled us through the water, so we all relaxed and looked at the glow worms on he ceiling. It was like looking at the stars. We soon ditched our innertubes and then began trekking/swimming through the river in the cave. That was my favorite part. The caves were so pretty and we weren't even that cold. At about this point, I had to pee really badly since I forgot to pee before I got my wetsuit on, and luckily enough, the guide said we could have a break now for that, only catch is we had to go to the bathroom in the cave. Well, I can now say I peed in a cave 65m underground in New Zealand.

After the bathroom break, we went down this passage called "the staggering drunk" because it's so uneven that people are aways tripping and falling all over themselves, and there was definitely a lot of that happening. When we finally got through that, it was the for another snack this time choose and this hot Kool-Aid type of drink they called tang. Then we headed down a narrow passage towards the last track that would take us out, and while waiting for everyone, one if the guides spotted an eel in the water and he was trying to catch it. I saw it briefly, and after that just tried not think about there being more in the caves. The track out was pretty intense, it had some tight areas and three waterfalls we had to get coached on how to climb over. When we climbed the last waterfall, we found ourselves in the woods at a stream that goes into the crevice we were climbing out of. Looking at it, you'd  never guess it led where we came from. Then we all had to slosh up a short trail to get ack to the vans, but it was so tiring and I had so much water in my boots that it wasn't a very fun trek.

Afterwards, we got a hot shower and free bagels and soup. They really know how to treat their customers. There was a couple that went with our group, and they were going to buy the pictures that were taken by the guides (since you really can't bring one of your own cameras unless its waterproof, and they had one of those) and they said they would email those to us, so hopefully they do. and that night we had a girls sleepover/movie night and we ate popcorn and watched The Lorax.