Day 76 – Going deeper underground

Leaving the hostel around 10am we were taken out into the countryside by Barbara, our guide for the day, along with a German guy and a couple of French girls. We were soon out into the green rolling hills – idyllic all bar the occasional sign warning you to stay out due to hazardous ground.

After getting kitted up in wetsuits, harnesses and MC Hammer pants (to protect the wetsuit) we took a short drive to the cave entrance. After a bit of practice with the rope and rack I found myself once more standing on a ledge getting ready to step off solid ground for no other reason than “how cool does black water rafting sound?”. The 25m vertical descent took me from the sunlight, through the ferns and into the open mouthed cave below. Arriving safely at the bottom I waited whilst the others came down.

The first part of the tour took us upstream to a large cave. There we tuned off our helmet lights and looked dup at the glowworms. As my eye sight adjusted the view of the cave roof changed from a few hundred dim green lights to thousands, forming a constellation of glowworms. Turning one light back on we got to see some up close as well as the string like lines they create to catch insects. Other residents of the underworld included a cricket like creature and a large eel.

We headed back downstream by floating with the current on big rubber rings with out lights off. The lack of light creates the term blackwater rafting. I wouldn’t say it was exactly rafting as we meandered at a leisurely pace but it was amazing to lie back and see the glowworms above you.

Continuing back past the start we continued downstream via the rings and on foot where the terrain got tougher. After a stop for hot drinks we headed back, but not thee easy way. Every so often we would be stopped and instructed to squeeze through some small muddy space. Comically I managed all but one, where I just couldn’t crouch down enough to get through. I’ve come to the conclusion that caving isn’t the past time for me.

Exiting the caves was via climb up the cave walls at the same place we entered, easier said than done in Wellington boots. It felt good to get back into the sun, even better to get a shower then hot soup. All in all it was a fantastic experience, not quite the thrills and spills I’d expected but definitely a one off.

Hitting the road we headed for New Plymouth where we’d booked another YHA as a freebie from  when we joined the YHA. We only stopped once to view a rock formation called the three sisters. Well we would have viewed them if the tide had been low enough to allow access.

Arriving in New Plymouth we stopped to check in and get some shopping in before heading out of town towards Mt Taranaki (or Mt Egmont). The weather report for the following day was grim and the Mt Fuji like mountain could be seen clearly in the  evenings light so it made sense to go explore. After a bit of fun trying to find an access road we made it to the North Egmont Visitor’s Centre. From there we were able to get a stunning view of the summit look down for miles upon the landscape of the North Island. A superb way to end the day.