Rhod and Anna's World Adventure

Last time I dressed in a rubber suit it was a roaring success (surfing). It's been a few weeks since that event and now it was time for another go.

Despite my surname, crawling around through tight spaces underground in the dark is not really in my comfort zone. It bothers me more than jumping out of a plane or throwing myself head first in to a canyon. But what would life be like if you only took part in things that you were comfortable doing? Dull! So we signed ourselves up for some blackwater tubing. Or as the company we went with call it "Tumu Tumu Toobing!"

When we arrived in Waitomo Caves we found a township built solely around their tourist attraction, the gloworm caves. There are a number of trips you can do, from just taking a leisurely stroll into the most picturesque caves to abseiling 100 metres down into them. We opted for the 7/10 'Rambo rating' 4 hour tubing adventure. The lady on the phone had assured me that we would be walking around upright most of the time, floating serenely on rubber tubes and only having to lower our heads slightly in some parts. Hmm. I think she was either talking about another tour or she just wanted our money.

Usually tours consist of a mix of nationalities and are a great way to meet people. When we were introduced to our guide Neil he told us that we were the only people on the trip! Anyhow, we drove through the middle of what looked like the Scottish Highlands and pulled into a hangar in the middle of privately-owned farmland. It was from this point on that all self-respect went out the window and the rubber suits came on! First up was what can only be described as lederhosen-style wetsuit dungarees. Mine were so tight that I had to be winched into them laughing hysterically which didn't aid proceedings. Thankfully photos aren't taken at this point! Then you don some wetsuit socks/booties, a jacket, white wellies and the all-important miner's helmet complete with light. Looking good! Ready to go, we set off through the field and after some uncomfortable waddling we hit the first hurdle...a ladder dropping 10 metres into the cave through a child-sized gap. This set the tone for the whole trip.

We walked, crawled, scrambled, squeezed, swam, slid and tubed our way through about 1km of cave over the next 2 hours. The water in New Zealand at this time of year? Absolutely freezing! It was a fantastic trip though. You didn't have to crawl through all of the tight spaces but we did (apart from one section for me as it was just too small for someone with my cross section.) I'm very proud of the fact that I squeezed sideways through this particularly uneven tunnel even if I did nearly scrape three layers of skin off my face in the process.

We also went down a 10 metre tunnel on our hands and knees with our lights swiched off. In actual fact I think it's better if you can't see how enclosed it is. When I lifted my head a fraction I knew just how enclosed it was. The whole journey was broken up by a refreshment break/underground picnic of chocolate and a hot lemon drink. The hot drink was much needed after the swimming.

One of the worst parts for me was jumping backwards off a 2 metre high ledge with my rubber ring cemented to my backside and landing unceremoniously in the freezing water. It took some convincing from Rhod and Neil and when the dreaded countdown began I knew I had no choice but to jump. Let's just say that screams echo in a cave! After the intial shock of hitting the freezing water we drifted along in our tubes on our backs with our lights off to admire the thousands of gloworms occupying the cave walls. Quite magical.

We emerged from the cage in to the dusk and made our way back to the shed to get out of the rubber and take a very welcome hot shower. We drove back to the office and picked up our free CD of photos from the trip. We did more than we expected of ourselves before we left. It's probably best that the lady on the phone didn' t tell us what it was like beforehand.

http://www.waitomo.co.nz/