Black Water Rafting - 08/24/2013

Saturday I went black water rafting. I'm sensing a trend - my semester of wet suits. I think one of these 5 mil numbers has become my official uniform of New Zealand. I seem to go swimming a lot in a country that never has warm water...  Go figure.

This rafting took place on inner tubes in the Wiatomo caves. It was a long day trip with a total of about 6 hours on a bus, but it was completely worth it! To start out the tour we had to do a test jump with our tube to simulate the waterfall we would be jumping off of in the caves. I volunteered to go first because, um,  why not? We all have to jump at some point or another. Then we started the trek downward, to 216 feet beneath the earth’s surface! To say the water in the cave was cold is an understatement, but we kept warm by moving along through caves and trying not to slip or hit our heads on stalactites. Just an average day... Then we reached the waterfall. Jumping off the waterfall, backwards, in a dark cave, definitely gets the heart pumping!

Then we floated down the river with our lights off and got look at the glow worms. It's actually the worms' poop that cause them to glow, so, it's a very good idea to keep your mouth shut while looking up. BUT, poop aside, it is one of the coolest things to observe and words just can’t describe. At the end of the tour we got to play my favorite game, find your way out of the pitch black cave by following the green exit lights (aka glow worm poop).  And that's the straight poop on black water rafting.

There were some moments where the people in front of you would get their tube stuck while floating but we all made it out. The bus back to Auckland did not leave until the evening so we had some time to kill in the very small town of Wiatomo. I looked at some cows and beautiful scenery, had some wine at a café, and played on a swing set. It was an action packed, yet strangely relaxing Saturday.  Just another day in New Zealand.