New Zealand Arrival June 16

We boarded Qantas airline Saturday evening, June 14th, at 8:00 pm. There was a slight delay, but we were soon in the air. We ended up sitting in the very last row, next to the bathroom. Although we were originally saddened by our seating prospects, things soon looked up when we realized there was an empty seat in our row and that the seats still reclined. We started the flight by reading, watching a movie, and eating (Ed had salmon, Jeanette had chicken). After about three hours, we decided to try to sleep. We took turns lying down across the seats and ended up sleeping on and off for the next seven hours. Therefore, they were fairly well-rested upon arrival. After waking up, we ate breakfast, read, and watched another movie to round out the last three hours. After a thirteen hour flight and a seventeen hour time difference between east coast time and New Zealand time, we arrived at Auckland International Airport. We went through a painless customs interrogation, collected our bags, and headed off to find a rental car.

Because we wanted a one-way rental between Auckland and Rotorua, a small airport, the charge was more than expected. However, by picking up a manual car, we were able to save over half the price of an automatic…in addition, the Avis representative gave us an “accidental” deal and couldn’t take it back once it was given (we didn’t even argue). We lugged our backpacks to our car for the next few days, a Mitsubishi Lancer, and began our journey of driving a manual car on the wrong side of the road. Quite our style (i.e. stupidly), we began driving without consulting a map. After realizing we didn’t know where we were going, we looked at a map, asked a pedestrian who had just moved to the area last week, and finally got to the main road that would take us to the day’s destination, Waitomo Caves. On the way down, we stopped a small rest area, hoping wireless internet would be available as we were unsure if our reservations for the cave tour and the bed and breakfast were confirmed. Fortunately, wireless internet was available with the purchase of a cup of coffee. Unfortunately, we had not received any confirmation e-mails. We continued along the way and hoped for the best.

We arrived at The Legendary Black Water Rafting Company after only one wrong turn and one incorrect stop at a different rafting company. Whoops! We were going to stop for lunch, but decided to stop into the rafting company first to get a reservation for the 2:00 tour, as advertised on their website. Luckily, when we got there, there were only available spots on the 11:00 tour. It was about 10:59. We skipped lunch, changed into our swimming trunks, and hopped on the tour. The water was expected to be 8 degrees Celsius – translation ~48 degrees Fahrenheit. We were told the water gets up to 68 degrees in the summer, but the water is much deeper in the winter, which makes for a much better trip. Because the water was so cold, we put a thermal lined sweater underneath our wetsuits to help keep us warm. We put on booties and rubber boots. We then put on our harnesses and helmets with lights as we would be abseiling (rappelling – going down a rope) first. After putting on our gear, we hopped into a van that would take us to the cave entrance.

Once arriving at the cave, we received a quick lesson in how to use the clip that would control the speed of our descent. We practiced on a hill twice each, which didn’t really do much to calm Jeanette’s nerves. We headed over to the hole in the ground which we would be descending. It was 37-40 meters deep (over 100 feet). Jeanette decided to let the other two couples go first to ensure that they made it down alive. The hole we descended was approximately 3 feet in diameter. When it was our turn to go, the guy hooked us up (individually as only one person abseiled at a time) and we rappelled down. Because the rope was fairly stiff at the top, we descended fairly slowly, even when not using the braking technique. Once getting through the hole, we continued our descent in a larger diameter, but still close to a wall. Ed didn’t have any trouble controlling his speed, but it was not a smooth ride (rather jerky) as he often slowed to look around. You weren’t able to see the bottom of the cave because it was pitch black. After what seemed a shorter than expected time, he reached the bottom, still expecting the worse part to be ahead. Jeanette descended after Ed. She also went down rather slowly and jerkily and reached the bottom sooner than expected…maybe it took a minute or a two. After walking a little bit ahead, we all had to turn off our headlamps as it was time to do zip lining in the dark. It reminded Ed of Space Mountain as you did not know what to expect in the dark. We went last again and heard the others scream in terror and/or delight as they went down. When some reached the end, the tour guide would make loud noises that echoed through the cavern to scare people. We all made it down alive. It was probably a 3 second trip for approximately 100 yards over the stream down below.

After zip lining, we all sat down on a cliff looking over the stream and had a snack. We got to choose coffee or tea and were each given a honey-oat-coconut sort of combination cookie. After eating our snack that helped warm our bodies for the cold water, we were shown how we would be entering the water below. Ed was first this time because the British guy asked Ed why we were always last. Ed took the rubber tube, placed it behind him, and jumped off the cliff into the dark water below. It was an approximately 12-15 foot drop. He landed with no problem. The others followed suit. Surprisingly, we all landed in the tubes. We paddled over to a rope and followed the rope for approximately ten minutes, looking around the cave with our headlights on. The tour guide then told us to turn off our headlamps so we could admire the glow worms inside the glow worm caves. He explained that glow worms were actually a fancy name given to the maggots that had fluorescent poop. It turned out that not many people came to the caves when they thought maggots were inside, so they call it glow worms instead. We then returned, with Ed as the leader, in the dark with our headlamps off so we could admire all the glow worms. Once getting back to the place where we jumped off the cliffs, we got off the floats and threw them up to the tour guide up above. We then started walking, or swimming when it got deeper, for a while. The water was quite cold, but not unbearable. We went down a slide over a little waterfall and continued our journey. Throughout the walk/swim, we had to crawl and squeeze through tiny passages. We saw a bluish/purple eel in the water. After a half an hour of walking around, we drank some warm liquid that tasted a bit like warm Tang and ate a few pieces of chocolate. We then headed to the Twin Falls, where there were actually three waterfalls. We shimmied up them one at a time with the tour guide telling us to where to place our feet. Each waterfall was an approximately ten foot climb up with water pouring down on our faces. The hole we ascended the cave through was smaller than the hole we descended to enter the cave. We caught a ride back to the rafting company, took our equipment off, took a warm shower, and then were given tomato soup and bagels.
While eating, we spoke with our new friends from the tour, one couple from Ireland and one from England. We found out that one couple was traveling for one year and the other was traveling for nine months. Here we thought we had a long vacation! One couple had spent four months in Asia (China, Vietnam, Japan, Thailand, and a few others we can’t remember), three months in Australia, and would be spending three months in New Zealand with a little while longer in Fiji and the United States. The other couple had traveled to South America (Peru, Bolivia, Chile), a few months in Fiji, a few months in Australia, and would be spending a couple months in Asia. We were jealous! After chatting and eating, we drove towards where we thought our bed and breakfast was located. After several kilometers on the road and a few headed through their 1600 acre sheep and beef farm, we arrived. No one was there to greet us, but there was a note on the door telling us to head to our cabin. We carried our luggage in through the drizzle and settled in. At this point, we were both tired, and since it was dark and rainy, we decided not to drive back to town for dinner. We relaxed, read, and started eyeing the breakfast food for dinner. Around 6:00 or so, our host, Rachel stopped by. She said she had sent us a confirmation e-mail telling us to bring food up with us as there was a mini kitchen in our cabin, but we never received it. As she felt sorry for us, she returned with a few kiwis and ramen noodle packages. We ate our makeshift dinner and went to bed around 8:00.

We woke up the next morning at 6:45 because we wanted to get an early start on the day. It was pouring when we woke up. We decided to take a short walk on the property down to see some glow worms. After looking at them, we showered, ate, and packed up our stuff. We were on the road to Rotorua by 8:00, when the sun was just coming up. It rained the entire two and a half hour ride to Rotorua. We drove through many green rolling hills that were often filled with sheep and/or cows.