Waitomo: Ostriches and Black Water Rafting
Day 1-3
Although Auckland is not the capital city of New Zealand, it is the largest with a quarter of New Zealand's population of 4 million. It didn't seem like anywhere too special - like any other international city with a quay, harbour and ubiquitious sky tower. I had booked 2 nights at a popular hotel in the busy downtown district - unfortunately, the area was a little too bustling. At midnight or so, a new club next to our room - the "Coco Club" opened it's doors. As only a small alleyway seperated the club's entrance to our room, I certainly could not sleep with the thumping bass rattling our room and the loud chatter and laughter by the door entrance. We complained to management the next day - they wanted to upgrade us to a higher floor etc. etc. But we cancelled our second night there instead - after such an unpromising start, we wanted to leave Auckland for the countryside as soon as possible. And good thing we did - I had not planned on visiting Waitomo but it turned out to be a highlight of our trip.
Waitomo is a fairly small village only 2.5 hours drive away, famous for its limestone caves filled with glowworms. Most tour groups pass by to do the glow-worm boat tour - you just sit on a boat while they take you through the caves as you "ooh" and "ahh" at the glow worms. But this being New Zealand,various caving adventure sports have sprung up in that area. We could have gone for the extreme caving activity (involves abseiling down in pitch-black darkness and some big jumps) but we chose the "medium-level" black water rafting course a.k.a The Black Labyrinth. We didn't arrive until mid-afternoon so decided to do the adventure the next morning.
It was fairly straightforward to find accommodation in the village - we were quite taken with the idea of staying at an ostrich farm so we immediately went there to book a room. Fortunately, the price was very reasonable and also included a tour of the farm to see the ostriches! The tour started with an ostrich egg demonstration. This involved using a power drill on low speed for a few minutes to drill a hole through the shell and membrane. Then, you shake the egg for ten minutes or so until the contents all fall out -yielding the equivalent of approx. 30 chicken eggs. Apparently, ostrich egg is fairly thick so you need to mix in milk at a 1:1 ratio if you want scrambled eggs or an omelette. The owners then took us to the ostriches - they had 3, two females and one male. The male is the pretty one with a long pink neck and head and black and white feathers. We were briefed on the perils of ostrich farming and how stupid the big birds were (something to do with their small heads).
Dinner that night was pizza at Morepork Pizza Parlour. Unfortunately, the pizza was previously frozen and the base flat-out hard. But we sat with a local farming family, who were very friendly and even invited us up to their farm for the next day! An offer we didn't take up due to our hectic travelling schedule...
The next morning, after an ostrich egg omelette breakfast, we made our way down the road to The Black Water Rafting Company (www.waitomo.com). First, we had to get kitted out in our wetsuits. These are wet when we put them on which makes for a squelchy experience. A nice pair of plastic boots, some shorts and a hard hat with light completes the outfit. You then choose a large rubber ring to fit your size. We were then taken to a nearby river where you practice jumping backwards onto your black rubber ring in the water. However, since the water level was so low, we couldn't jump from the high platform but only from the low platform. The high platform was about 5 meters and looked fairly scary - so I lucked out. The river was really shallow (about knee-length) but since Paul couldn't swim, he had a mild panic attack when the instructor pushed him in.
The main event - we got taken into Ruakiri cave, we switched on our headlights and plunged into the pitch darkness. We walked some of the way, admiring the rock formations. At other times, we floated on the river in our rubber rings, paddling along. Throughout the tour, our two guides/instructors were hilarious - providing commentary on the caves and glowworm eating habits and reminding us constantly not to pee in our wetsuits. When we got to the cascading waterfall, it was dark enough that I couldn't see how high it was (which was fortunate). Otherwise, I'm not sure if I would have been so co-operative in letting the guide push me backwards! When I was falling, I even had time to think "Hmm, when am I going to hit the water?" so it must have been fairly high. Luckily for Paul, there was another way down at the waterfall....
After an hour in the cave, I was getting cold. The water was about 10 degrees celsius, my teeth was starting to chatter. Good thing that we got snacks in the cave (chocolate seals that float!) before we started the journey back onto the surface. This is when they told us we had to switch off our headlights and in the pitch darkness, use the glowworms to find our way out. Luckily, it wasn't too difficult - we paddled our way down the river following the trail of glowworms on the cave roof and soon enough, we could see sunlight....
We finished the adventure with a hot shower, some hot soup and a bagel (all included in the tour price of NZ$90). We also got a reduced entrance fee for Ruakiri Cave (the awe-inspiring tour to see the stalagmites and stalactites). We had a great time in Waitomo but it was time to move on to Roturua. Geothermal wonderlands and hot springs here we come!
Although Auckland is not the capital city of New Zealand, it is the largest with a quarter of New Zealand's population of 4 million. It didn't seem like anywhere too special - like any other international city with a quay, harbour and ubiquitious sky tower. I had booked 2 nights at a popular hotel in the busy downtown district - unfortunately, the area was a little too bustling. At midnight or so, a new club next to our room - the "Coco Club" opened it's doors. As only a small alleyway seperated the club's entrance to our room, I certainly could not sleep with the thumping bass rattling our room and the loud chatter and laughter by the door entrance. We complained to management the next day - they wanted to upgrade us to a higher floor etc. etc. But we cancelled our second night there instead - after such an unpromising start, we wanted to leave Auckland for the countryside as soon as possible. And good thing we did - I had not planned on visiting Waitomo but it turned out to be a highlight of our trip.
Waitomo is a fairly small village only 2.5 hours drive away, famous for its limestone caves filled with glowworms. Most tour groups pass by to do the glow-worm boat tour - you just sit on a boat while they take you through the caves as you "ooh" and "ahh" at the glow worms. But this being New Zealand,various caving adventure sports have sprung up in that area. We could have gone for the extreme caving activity (involves abseiling down in pitch-black darkness and some big jumps) but we chose the "medium-level" black water rafting course a.k.a The Black Labyrinth. We didn't arrive until mid-afternoon so decided to do the adventure the next morning.
It was fairly straightforward to find accommodation in the village - we were quite taken with the idea of staying at an ostrich farm so we immediately went there to book a room. Fortunately, the price was very reasonable and also included a tour of the farm to see the ostriches! The tour started with an ostrich egg demonstration. This involved using a power drill on low speed for a few minutes to drill a hole through the shell and membrane. Then, you shake the egg for ten minutes or so until the contents all fall out -yielding the equivalent of approx. 30 chicken eggs. Apparently, ostrich egg is fairly thick so you need to mix in milk at a 1:1 ratio if you want scrambled eggs or an omelette. The owners then took us to the ostriches - they had 3, two females and one male. The male is the pretty one with a long pink neck and head and black and white feathers. We were briefed on the perils of ostrich farming and how stupid the big birds were (something to do with their small heads).
Dinner that night was pizza at Morepork Pizza Parlour. Unfortunately, the pizza was previously frozen and the base flat-out hard. But we sat with a local farming family, who were very friendly and even invited us up to their farm for the next day! An offer we didn't take up due to our hectic travelling schedule...
The next morning, after an ostrich egg omelette breakfast, we made our way down the road to The Black Water Rafting Company (www.waitomo.com). First, we had to get kitted out in our wetsuits. These are wet when we put them on which makes for a squelchy experience. A nice pair of plastic boots, some shorts and a hard hat with light completes the outfit. You then choose a large rubber ring to fit your size. We were then taken to a nearby river where you practice jumping backwards onto your black rubber ring in the water. However, since the water level was so low, we couldn't jump from the high platform but only from the low platform. The high platform was about 5 meters and looked fairly scary - so I lucked out. The river was really shallow (about knee-length) but since Paul couldn't swim, he had a mild panic attack when the instructor pushed him in.
The main event - we got taken into Ruakiri cave, we switched on our headlights and plunged into the pitch darkness. We walked some of the way, admiring the rock formations. At other times, we floated on the river in our rubber rings, paddling along. Throughout the tour, our two guides/instructors were hilarious - providing commentary on the caves and glowworm eating habits and reminding us constantly not to pee in our wetsuits. When we got to the cascading waterfall, it was dark enough that I couldn't see how high it was (which was fortunate). Otherwise, I'm not sure if I would have been so co-operative in letting the guide push me backwards! When I was falling, I even had time to think "Hmm, when am I going to hit the water?" so it must have been fairly high. Luckily for Paul, there was another way down at the waterfall....
After an hour in the cave, I was getting cold. The water was about 10 degrees celsius, my teeth was starting to chatter. Good thing that we got snacks in the cave (chocolate seals that float!) before we started the journey back onto the surface. This is when they told us we had to switch off our headlights and in the pitch darkness, use the glowworms to find our way out. Luckily, it wasn't too difficult - we paddled our way down the river following the trail of glowworms on the cave roof and soon enough, we could see sunlight....
We finished the adventure with a hot shower, some hot soup and a bagel (all included in the tour price of NZ$90). We also got a reduced entrance fee for Ruakiri Cave (the awe-inspiring tour to see the stalagmites and stalactites). We had a great time in Waitomo but it was time to move on to Roturua. Geothermal wonderlands and hot springs here we come!
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