Day 06: Hot Water Beach - Waitomo

We left Hot Water Beach at the very reasonable time of 08:30 and made our way to the Karangahake reserve which is known for its scenery, gold mining and rail history. This reserve is made up of abandoned mine buildings, tunnels, underground chambers and some sections of the river gorge.

The views were spectacular...

After that, some more bus until we reached our final destination Waitomo were we all went for some fun in the dark.

All suit up and ready to go

Why am I dressing up like a condom yet again you may wonder...
Because of this:

What you see there is miles and miles and miles of caves and tunnels with underwater rivers and waterfalls... and we were just about to explore some of them!

First we did some abseil to descend to the cave (35 metres) through a very narrow passage.

then we followed the cave until the river were we stop for a cup of tea... very civilized...

Jumped into the cold water for some tubing

propelled ourselves against the current for what felt like an eternity, we switch off our helmet lights and the most amazing thing happened.

The cealing was filled with glowing worms and in the dark it felt like you were staring at the stars. A pity I couldn't take any pictures... just that experience would have been worth it... but we had more... just making your way through the tunnels and through the water was quite thrilling...

Finally it was time to get out, so we started making a move for the exit...and we had to go through some very narrow spaces, sometimes the water would be on your knees, sometimes on your neck sometimes even higher.

This was the exit... a waterfall... you actually come out of the water

All together on the outside

It was really fun and something I've never done before. :-)



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