Waitomo Caves - Whangarei

We had been looking forward to the caves as a highlight for the end of our tour of NZ - basically you booked a day up in Waitomo that included an abseil down into the caves, cave walking, black water rafting, rock climbing and floating through the huge glow worm caves ( these had been shown on planet earth!).
We meet up again with our pal Jess and we all booked 3 nights to stay up there so we had plenty of time to chill out before and after our day out. All around Waitomo there is loads to do and we spent one of the days driving out to the Peri Peri caves, the fossilized oysters and a huge natural limestone bridge that just looked like the lost boys cave!

That night when we got back we were going to go the bar - the only one in town... but it shut at 7! can you believe it so we had to make do with cans in the van.. just as well though as we had to be up early at 730 the following morning for our caving adventure..
Up bright and early that morning and the weather was cold, damp and miserable and when our tour giude drove us out to a feild and told us to put on our swim suits and get into wet wellies, and wetsuits we were all having second thoughts!
Our tour guide was the spit for Tom Cruise but he was sound out and soon got us in the spirit of things especially when he got me to go first abseiling down 30m into the caves, and it wasnt the abseil that you do at the side of a building this one you are just hanging in mid air... i dont think he realised girls could shot or give off as much but all he did was laugh and take photos of us!
So one by one we all abseiled down into the caves - it was amazing and once you took that initial step off the cliff you were grand - well you had to be really!

We all got into the caves and the water down there was freezing but once you stayed in it long enough you couldnt feel it and everything went numb... Ger said he developed a second belly button for the first time in his life..haha!
Cruz the tour giude started us cave walking into the dark and then once the water got too deep we got into our tubes for some black water rafting - this was fab! You went down through the caves and over rocks and waterfalls and yes of course myself and Jess went on our ass'... At one stage all i could see were my 2 legs heading for my head in a backward tumble effect - well funny though!

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After the falls and stopping for some chocolate and hot juice we headed back via the glowcaves - millions of them that lit up the whole cave - it was amazing well worth the trip.

The journey back was through crevases, under rocks and more black water rafting and once we got back we each had to rock climb up the cliff face back to the top and once again funny man Cruz made me go first... it was just as well i didnt manicure my nails as it was tough getting back up especially in big water filled wellies!
We all made it back in one piece anyway and then had to strip off and got hot showers and soup which were very welcomed. Back at the camp we were definitely deserved a pint for our achievements - "self appreciation society" - Ger even treated himself to a spa lol
Next morning we all headed north - we were going to Whangarei for a night stop over just - well that was once we got the van towed out of the camp after Ger got us stuck in the mud reversing!!