Waitomo Black Abyss Tour

Here at WorldVetAdventures, we take what few comments we get seriously. A short while back one Brandon Sparrow told us, quote: "You guys have to go back to Waitomo and go Caving. Do the Black Abyss tour... http://www.waitomo.com/caving-adventure.aspx . It was the 2nd best thing I did in NZ (after Bungy Jumping). Its not cheap but worth every penny! - Sparrow"

Well, we did it Sparrow and you were absolutely right it was awesome! This tour had everything: rapeling (abseiling), flying fox, tubing, caving/climbing. We started off at their base camp, where they got us geared up and went over some basic safety stuff. Our friend Ema was up for the weekend to see us- here's a pic of the three of us in our gear.

 Then we drove out to the cave and practiced rapelling while still above ground. We had some fun too, as you can see.

The first part of the tour involved rapeling down this 35 m hole into the cave. It was scary, some parts I just didn't look down. Jared said he wasn't ever scared. Bullshit. I wasn't very good at rapeling smoothly, so it was kind of awkward me jerking the whole way down. I'm sure it was entertaining for the guides.

Our friend Ema

Once at the bottom we walked through a tunnel with lots of stalagmites, stalagtites and glowworms. Then there was a big drop-off and the way to get across was a big flying fox. It was extra-crazy because they hook you on to the flying fox, push you off and turn off all the lamps at the same time. Then the second guide smacks something really hard at the bottom to make everyone else think you hit something really hard. They didn't get a picture of me doing it so I pasted my face on a different person, you'll have to use your imagination :)

We all made it down safe and sound and then we got to have a hot chocolate and a toffee square.

Next we jumped into the river on our tubes. The goal is to jump with your tube and land inside it in the river. I executed the move beautifully, might I say. Most of the group was jumping too straight and their tubes were shooting out behind them. Jared jumped too horizontal and his tube came out in front of him. The water was so cold!

Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!

After a word on glowworms and their lifecycles- our guide told us they are shiny shit on the walls produced by a maggot that eats for 3 weeks and then shags for 36 hrs and dies! We then started walking on foot upriver into the cave. We climbed through some tight spots. Here I am completely exhilarated- I think I look kind of frightening in this picture

And here's Jerry!

The last and best part of the tour was climbing up the waterfalls to get out of the cave. Here are some promo pics that demonstrate what we did.

When we finally emerged, some 4.5 hours later, it didn't even feel like we had been under that long. What a great time, I wanted to do it all over again!

Until next time!