Caving and Surfing on the West Coast!

Waitomo Caves was the last big highlight on our trip, we couldn't wait to get there so we drove over that evening. There are hundreds of caves in the area, most unexplored, which you can absail into, climb through and 'black water rapid' down! I chose a trip that did all of the above! After meeting our insanely funny Aussie guide, we drove over to a small hut near the caves to get changed into wetsuits, helmets and headlamps. Before we entered the cave we practiced using a decender for the absailing, looking like fools absailing from fence posts across flat ground!

Next we walked over to the cave shaft where everyone voted for me to go down first!! I was connected up to the rope and jumped into the hole before absailing down for 30 meters! I absailed straight into a very cold river and waded up to a dry point to wait for the others. After everyone had sailed down we grabbed a big rubber ring each and waded up the river through some small caves with our headlamps to guide us. At the apparent end of the cave the guide told us that the tunnels actually went at least 500m furthur but you had to go underwater for a long way using SCUBA gear to reach them. Only one guy has ever done it and he said that it was so horrible that no one has ever tried again! Anyway, at the point we had to grab the shoulder of the person in front of us, turn off our lights and wade through the cave in pitch black darkness. As our eyes started to adjust to the light we started to see more and more glow worms blinking on the cave walls and ceiling like little stars. Then we heard a loud BANG and the guide chuckled saying that the adrenaline would make our pupils dilate so we could see more glow worms. Sure enough we looked up and were dazzled by the hundreds of thousands of blue-green lights from the glow worms. Then it was time to do some black water rafting!! We hopped on our rings and shot down the river in total darkness peering up at the glow worms. At certain points we would hit rapids and bounce down them, getting soaked in the process! Once we got to the end of the rapids it was time for some caving. We squeezed ourselves through a load of small holes before it was time to leave. This involved a rock climb up the 30m wall we'd absailed down!! It was great fun and very very tiring!!

The next day was horse riding day! Sara is a keen horse rider and I have never even tried to get on a horse...a good combination! Anyway, we head to a trekking place that was on the top of a huge hill. I was introduced to my horse, Albert, and we headed off behind the rest of the group. At the beginning it was hard to keep myself balanced but I got the hang of it in the end! The views were amazing as we trekked around the hill and through the fields. Afterwards we went to Bridal Veil Falls, a huge waterfall a few km down the road.

We had two days left before we had to return the car so headed over to the seaside town of Raglan. Its a really relaxed place with some amazing surfing beaches. The best was Manu Bay which has a huge left hander that I couldn't wait to see. As soon as I saw the bay I wanted to go surfing and luckily the place we were staying that night rented out surfboards so I carved it up for a couple of hours before getting some well needed grub!