How New Zealanders do Caving

Tuesday, March 28, 2011

On Tuesday, we woke up really early to clean the Bronze's home before leaving Rotorua and driving to Waitamo where all 16 girls and James were going black water glow worm caving. I was so excited to go black water caving. I have been caving since I was 13 and have always loved caving in GA, but this was my first experience with black water caving.

The first group of girls went down the cave at 10:30 while the group I was with was going at noon with 8 girls and James. Once it was time for our caving, I got into a wet suit complete with boots and a helmet with a light. We looked pretty hard core. I love going caving and I could not wait for this experience to begin. We drove to a spot where we picked up our black inner tubes and practiced jumping backwards with our inner tubes over waterfalls.So cool that would be fun to do in the cave. We then went over some safety procedures and headed up to the cave.

Kara and I were the first ones to climb down into the cave. I think we were the most excited too. Once in the cave, We saw some giant crickets, maybe the brothers or cousins of Jimminy and heard that there are fresh water eels in the water that could bite.The water in the cave was freezing cold and pretty deep in some parts. I climbed and swam through the cave until we came to the first waterfall. I turned around put my tube under my bum closed my eyes and jumped off backwards, it was so much fun. I made a huge splash and got some water in my nose, but had such a good time!! Jumping waterfalls may become a new hobby.

 I continued through the cave until we got to where the glow worms were.Glow worms are actually maggots, and it is their poop that glows and they only exist in New Zealand. May sound gross, but it was pretty cool to see them light up the cave. Their light is the brightest natural light source in the world, it was like floating down though the cave and looking up at stars lighting up the sky, except it was glowworms lighting up the cave. It was pretty magical to float down this underground cave and watch the glow worms over head. I just loved it. I have missed caving so much. Matt Pennington would be proud of my caving experience in New Zealand and even though I didn't get covered in red mud, I think it tops caving in GA, but I still want to go caving in GA again soon. Towards the end of the cave, was the tunnel of love which gets its name because the rocks in this part try to give you a hug. We then climbed out of the cave and hiked back to the van to drive back to the base and change. It was such a fun experience to cave in New Zealand and have the opportunity to do one of my favorite things the New Zealand way. One of the best experiences ever. I just love having so many cool experiences in New Zealand.

We got soup to warm up after caving, and then started to drive back to Auckland. In the car we reminenced through all of our old favorite cartoons on Nick Jr and PBS that no longer exist like Wishbone, Doug, and Recess. So many good shows, why don't they have them any more? We had the sister missionaries over for dinner once we got back to Auckland. I really like the sisters in the ward. It was so great to talk to and get to know both of them.

I had such a great adventure down in Rotorua and loved all of it and I am ready for another adventure on Thursday! Oh what fun!!