Sunday, June 21, 2009

Waitomo Caves are awesome!

I went to Waitomo to go explore the caves in New Zealand and had such a FUN time! I abseiled down into a cave from 35 meters!!!! Into the 'black abyss' with my helmet light on and ready to go on a 5 hour journey! Once we were in the cave we hiked along until there was a huge drop and i got to zipline down with all the lights off so i could see the glow worms and it was awesome! there are so many it looks like stars in the sky! Then we got our tubes for black water rafting, but it wasn't as rough as white water rafting it was a relaxing lazy river with a comfortable 9 degrees celcious water temperature! BRRRRR not really! haha we had on thick wetsuits to help us keep warm, then we hiked over rocks in the water and fell all over the place it was so funny! By the end of the caves after a few rest stops for some hot drinks it was time to CLIMB two and a half waterfalls with my bare hands!!!! i doubted myself when i saw the force of the water coming down but i did it and i was so happy and proud and excited! i climbed up both of them in no time and when we got out it was a gorgeous stream with the greenest trees flowing into the cave we traveled in for quite a while! i loved every minute except the cold of the water on my hands but it was soooo worth it!


Pretty views on the way to Waitomo


The hostel we stayed at and told scary stories!
Boo! AHH!


Glow worm strands!!!!

My group for caving in the Ruakuri cave!

Practice before the real vertical abseil adventure!


Look at me! Down 35 meters on my own,
through a tiny cave hole!


having hot tang and chocolate breaks in the cave! so fun!

Me climbing up waterfalls!!!!



Glow worms look like stars in the night, it was sooo breathtaking to see!