Adventures in Becoming a Caniwi: Waitomo

Is it possible that this nurse with a geography minor has finally found a way to use it? Okay, well at least on my days off. Laurel and I took a trip down to Waitomo this past weekend. This trip was possible due to our new best friend, Layla. She is a 1994 grey Subaru Legacy with the most banged up front bumper. We bought her for $550 from 4 19 year old boys who had all come from different parts of the world (England, South Africa, Zimbabwe) to tutor at one of the local private junior boys schools. Since the term was over they were all heading home to their respective countries and didn't need/want Layla any longer. Our good friend, Andrew, (husband of Melissa a former TDSS highschool bandmate) let us know about this deal......... another than a quick trip to the mechanic to make sure she wouldn't blow up/die just driving around Auckland she has been sweet as ever since. Oh and to insure her for both Laurel & I for a year..... $460. This whole driving thing is the only cheap thing we have found yet in NZ!! We are learning the ways of the road and getting use to driving on the opposite side of the road and haha more importantly getting in the car on the right side in order to actually drive :) Pictures of Layla to follow at somepoint.

Back to Waitomo

It was only a 2 1/2 hour trip south, on motorway 1 and then 39 once past Ngaruawahia. When I say motorway, I wouldn't picture the 401....more like 2 land highway 11 but with more sharpturns, along rolling green hills, with sheep and cows in pastures on sides of the hills, with steam/mist rolling between the hills, oh and did I mention it is all green :) Scenic drive through the Waikato region and great driving practice for both of us.

Wai = water

Tomo = hole in ground

Caves are what the little town/village of Waitomo is based on. On Saturday afternoon we toured through the Ruakuri cave (means 2 dogs), Aranui cave and the glow worm cave.

Ruakuri

The formations here in this room in the Ruakuri cave are stalactites (dripping from above). The whole region is mostly limestone and the caves are built from either long ago streams/rivers running through them or some/parts that still do. The limestone continues to be dripped down (stalactites) with each drop of water or carried down to form stalagmites, which rise from the floor of the cave as it deposits. The crazy part is that it takes nearly 100 years for 1 cubic cm to form!! So some of these stalagmites and stalactities have been a really long time.

Cave coral or cauliflower

Cave shawl

Several cave shawls

Oh and I forgot to mention that visitors are not to touch anything in the caves as the oil/dirt/human aspect can and does change the colour of the deposits to this gross tainted brown. Otherwise the caves are mostly pearly white from the limestone.

Our tour guide, Andrew, was this young guy that does the dry cave tour (which we were on) once a week but the other 4 days a week does the wet caving (wait for it :)). He was quite informative and funny, he told the story of how the cave got its name, Ruakuri - 2 dogs- based on a Maori chief having just killed his birds for the tribe dinner but that he was chased into this cave by 2 dogs and he only managed to getaway from the ferocious dogs was by giving them the birds. Personally, I bet the story has changed a hundred times in the last hundred years but the interesting part is that the caves themselves hadn't really been discovered until the late 19th century and hardly at all until the 1910's. In the Maori culture, the chiefs and many ancestors are buried at the entrance of caves as they are thought to be part of the underworld. The Maori were not likely and not keen to venture to far in past the stretch of sunlight for this reason.

Aranui

2nd cave of the day was not as mesmerizing for 1) it was smaller & 2) it had been one where the original tourists back in the early 1900s would take back parts of stalactites and stalagmites as souvenirs, leaving centuries required to even remotely replace what was taken :(

The different colour of brown here in the middle is from a faultline crack in the ceiling allowing more minerals from the land above to be seeped in with the water.

The pictures do not seem to do it justice in just how huge & immense the caves with huge rooms and cathedrals are. Laurel, here, is making her way through the Aranui cave.

Blackwater rafting Co.

We did the 5hour Black Abyss tour with guides Lloyd & Corian, which involved abseiling down a ?m descent, black water tube rafting, flying fox (ziplining), caving ('rock climbing but using all sides, holds/grips and body parts & not worrying how pretty you look when you do it' as per Corian). Oh and did I mention that we were the only 2 on the tour..... that's right a private Waitomo caves tour.

Do we look sexy or what?

They had us do 'training' of how to abseil ourselves down into the cave before hand on dryland & then told us to go to the end of ropes and well jump up & down. SO we did!

Looking way less scared than I think I was

Drinking Milo and eating oatcakes after our flying fox ziplining, which we did twice since there was only 2 of us but we had to climb back up to do it again, haha that was funny and scary all at the same time

Lloyd told me to wedge myself up to Laurel, it was not my idea and was fun to get out of

Eating chocolate on one of our breaks, promise we did more than eat and have some bruises & scrapes to prove it :)

It was soooo much fun :)

Alright this picture doesn't do it justice but we went on the glowworm tour but are not allowed to take pictures on the tour. We also saw them on the Black Abyss tour while floating down the stream on black inner tubes, amazing!!

Glow worms are actually maggots that are able to create bioluminescence (haha that doesn't look right) or glowing. One maggot will make like 20 strands, of almost spider web material that just tangle from there 'house', each with a bright greenish hue. Bugs are drawn to the light thinking they are stars and get caught and therefore eaten. Oh the circle of life just with glowing to go along with it!! Incredible

The rest of the trip included a dusk walk along the Ruakuri forest walk..