The World Of Woodbury: I'm Seeing Stars

As we were researching what activities were "must do" when in New Zealand, the top of the list quickly was topped by "visit a glowworm cave". These unique caves exist only in 2 places in New Zealand and 1 in Australia so really there's no where else to see this. And since we were nearby visiting Hobbiton, the Waitomo caves were a short drive. There were 3 options for tours so that everyone was accomodated. Our boys went on a boat tour through the cave with Grandpa (with the broken leg) and pregnant Sam and her faithful husband Mack. Isla and baby Ezi just got traded off since tours were at different times and there was no point in bringing them. Grams, Barbara, Clint, Arty, and Esther went tubing through the cave, and Taylor and I were the crazy ones who wanted the full over-the-top experience.

So we booked the "Black Abyss" experience and showed up ready for adventure.

The first "adventure" was getting dressed. The guides lined us up and explained how we'd dress in wet suits and socks and shoes and helmets and ropes. All during this we watched as other groups finished their tours, stripped down out of the wet, used wetsuits and then soaked them in soapy water and hung them up and walked away. So we witnessed the whole process, and then the guides started passing out our wet suits- the same cold, used ones the previous tourists had used. Gross! and really hard to get on. Worse than jumping into a cold pool. But finally we were all ready to go and suited up. Time for a group photo.

We got bussed out to a mountain and they taught us how to belay.

Which was useful information moments later when we were repelling more than 115 feet into the cave below. Here I go!

And Taylor came after.

Down through the amazing hole. It's shaped like an hourglass so it was a little tight to get into but kind of fun to descend that far down and into a hole.

Here Taylor comes.

At the bottom we turned all our headlamps off and looked around at the absolute blackness and then the amazing stars INSIDE the caves. The glowworms don't actually glow- it's just their feces that does, but since the caves have rivers running through them, small insects come in and then get attracted by the "stars" and think that's the way out and then they get stuck in the spidery web strings the glowworms build. It's kind of creepy and gross but amazingly beautiful. Glowing feces.

After the repelling we did a zip line across a giant cavern. In New Zealand they call it a "flying fox" and we kind of felt like that.

And then it was back into the blackness and time for a quick snack.

And then we were told to "jump". Quite literally. Jump off this 10 foot cliff and if you're good at it you'll land inside your tube in the dark cold water. Here we go!

That's me landing. Mostly gracefully so I didn't tip out but jumping that far down there was no way to not get soaked from the splash.

And here comes Taylor.

We tubed around for a while just drifting under the stars and admiring the view. And then they sent us down a slide. Obviously I enjoyed it.

And Taylor looks as giddy as a school boy.

Until they told us that the rivers were also occupied by large eels. Eek! At least they told us this AFTER we were done tubing and starting our spelunking out of the cave.

Did I mention spelunking? The rivers comes into the cave through a series of waterfalls and so we got to "climb" out and up through these. Seriously? That was my thought. But the guides show you where to hold and where to climb and it actually works.