Waitomo Caves

This post will be photo-less as this was not an adventure which allowed a camera, but I have convinced myself it is good to write a post that I cannot include photos with because it will motivate me to sort out and organize the several hundred photos I took on my brother and I's road trip of the South Island :) I will fill you all in on that soon as I get something done with the photos and figure the best way to organize what I'd like to tell you about.

Shortly after arriving in New Zealand (while I was taking the bus from Auckland to New Plymouth my first week here to be exact), I saw a sign for black water rafting to see glowworms at the Waitomo Caves. So naturally I added this activity to my New Zealand bucket list.

So my brother and I showed up, filled out the necessary waivers, medical forms, etc. and off we went with our guide. There were 12 of us in the group, 2 French people, and 8 Germans. First stop was to get gear. The morning was a bit chilly, probably about 55 degrees, so it was absolutely delightful to put a wet, cold, clammy wetsuit on over our swimsuits :) We also got boots, and cool helmets with lights on them. Once we'd donned our gear, we each grabbed an inner tube and were off.

It took about an hour and a half to get through the cave. Part of the time we were drifting along in the dark (we'd turned our lights off) so we could see the glowworms. It was gorgeous, it was like stargazing in a cave, at greenish stars. For those of you who are not sure what glowworms are, they are flies that have cocooned themselves in the caves. They leave strings of spider-type-web hanging down from the ceiling (called the "fishing lines of death" by our guide) to trap bugs to eat. Once they hatch they have a few days to mate and lay eggs and then they die. Pretty exciting life :)

Part of the trip through the cave was walking in ankle to knee deep water carrying our tubes. This is great if you are coordinated and not clumsy. Or experienced at walking in big bulky boots full of water :) I managed to only scrape up my knuckles a few times. I'll blame it on the fact that sometimes the ceiling was too low for me to stand up straight. A good bit of the time we were sitting on our inner tubes as we went through the cave. None of the places had terribly fast or rough water, but enough to be exciting. In slower places you just paddled yourself along with your arms.

For me personally (and probably most of the group I'd wager), the biggest adventure within the adventure as a whole, was jumping off a waterfall. Two actually, although the first was only maybe 18 inches high. The second was about 5 feet high I believe. What you do to successfully jump off a waterfall when blackwater rafting is to stand right on the edge, backwards (so that your looking upstream), put your tube behind your bum and jump backwards. I would recommend not spending too much time thinking about it beforehand, it is far easier to just take the plunge (no pun intended of course!!). The first waterfall wasn't high enough to really be much of a plunge, but the second one definitely was. So glad I had my mouth closed because I got completely submerged :)

Climbing the Mountain

So what did you do last Saturday morning? I didn't do a whole lot, just climbed a mountain. All the way to the top, approximately 8,600 feet! It only took 4 hours :)

My brother arrived in New Zealand about a week and a half ago for a three week visit, so last Saturday we woke up bright and early at 4am (more early than bright haha) and joined a couple of the locals in climbing Mt. Taranaki.

There wasn't this much snow on it, I took this not long after I arrived
during the winter, but it is a good shot of what I climbed!

It was still dark when we got there, so the mountain was silhouetted against a star-filled night sky. The first hour was pretty easy, started out with a gravel road, and then a paved road up to an excellent look-out just in time for a beautiful sunrise (the last section before the look-out is called "the puffer" since by the time you get to the top you are ready to take a break). It was clear so we could see clusters of light that were New Plymouth, Egmont Village, and other surrounding townships.

This one so doesn't look real but promise it is!

The next bit was not too much more of a challenge. We followed a dirt path further up the side of the mountain through a grassy/rocky area until we got to a set of stairs, about 500 steps. The scenery helped distract from the fact that my legs were starting to burn a bit :)

Just as we reached the top of the stairs and I was thinking that mountain climbing wasn't so bad, we got to the next bit which is called "the scurrier." We had started climbing at 6am, it was now about 7:40am. We would not reach the end of the scurrier until about 9:15am. I was ready to be past it long before then, if I may be honest. It was a mixture of loose gravelly rocks and dirt. As you looked up it did not appear to be terribly steep, but I quickly discovered that for every two steps forward I took, I would slide back down at least one, sometimes three. It was most definitely a lesson in perseverance, and you quickly found out how fit you are or are not.

Next up was "the lizard," named for the fact that you couldn't go straight up since it was just rocks on the side of the mountain, so you had to pick your way back and forth to find hand and footholds. It was about that point that I decided I would put off looking down for awhile. I am not terribly afraid of heights, but somehow knowing that I was climbing up some rocks, which were not straight up, but were certainly far from flat, was a little unnerving when I realized just how far we had climbed.

Once we reached the top of the rocks, we just had to cross the crater (Mt. Taranaki is an inactive volcano), and climb one more brief section before the top.

The crater was full of ice and snow, but by that point we had been working hard enough you hardly noticed the cold unless a gust of wind came up. Once we reached the top, we had lunch, at 10am, but it felt overdue after 4 hours of climbing. There were clouds down below that had formed since we began our climb, so we could not see town or the rest of the mountain range or surrounding area, but it was a bit magical to feel like we were were in our own little windy paradise on top of the world. The clouds were gorgeous in their own way, and it was somewhat awe-inspiring to see other mountain ranges across the island that I have heard of but have not yet made it to.

Mt. Ruapehu in the distance

The very top (and yes I went up there)!!

Of all the ones we took, this was the best..... :)

The climb down was much easier, and quick than going up, naturally, it only took about 2 and a half hours. When going down "the scurrier" we pretty much just ran down it, or slid down on it, occasionally not on my feet if you were me. About two thirds of the way down we were walking through the clouds which had prevented us from seeing all the way down, which was a slightly odd thing as we knew we were still high up but could not see more than a few yards around where we were walking.
I could keep attempting to describe it, but I think I will let you look at the pictures again instead because they tell the story a bit better :)

Team Day Out

I feel that I was lucky in finding the job at the insurance company, if for no other reason that I absolutely adore my co-workers (there are several other reasons, but that is a top one). Enjoying the company of those you work with is definitely something to be valued I think, it can make even the most monotonous jobs far less dull. My team recently decided we should have a day out at the lake before summer had completely passed us by. So last weekend we all woke up bright and early, packed a picnic lunch, and headed to Lake Rotomanu for a fun-filled day.

Two of the guys brought boats, and between everyone who came, there were enough wet suits, life jackets, and various water-sport toys to suit everyone. Top priority on everyone's list was teaching me how to water ski (yikes!). We tried, but decided we will have to schedule another outing for round two as it was not entirely successful. Just as it seemed I was off to a good start, the water skis would slip off, I apparently have narrow feet, and it seemed like no matter how we tightened them, they were determined to come off. For those of you who have never worn water skis, it is ridiculously difficult to walk in water while they're on. Every time you pick up your foot to take a step it feels like it is going to float away. And if you are not careful to keep both water skis straight, they cross and your legs get all tangled up, which means you faceplant in the water :) Re wearing a wetsuit.....well I was glad to have one, but it felt like I was wearing a suction cup.

Although water skiing turned out to be less than successful for me (my supervisor looked like a pro, and there were also some attempts at wakeboarding), I did enjoy a few turns around the lake on the biscuit. I even managed to not fall off!