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On Friday we went to Waitomo after leaving Rotorua in the morning. We arrived in Waitomo at about lunch time. We checked in our hostel and it was like a wooden lodge, definitely the best hostel we have stayed in! We signed ourselves up for the Black Abysscaving trip which was for 5 hours. We left the hostel at about 3.45, we were picked up in a minibus and we were taking to the caving place. Wemet our guides who were called 'Josh' and 'Vee' and then we got kitted up in wetsuits. They were so hard to put on, over the top we had to wear a pair of baggy shorts - not quite sure why! Somehow Rob got a pair of pants to wear over the top of his, he looked very funny! We got our harnesses on too and then got in another mini bus to get to the caves, the cave we were going in was called Ruakuri Cave. When we got there we had to practice abseiling down some grass and also how to stop. Then it was time to go down!
I was so scared, I was the third person to go down. To get into the cave we had to abseil down a 40 meter hole in the dark! On the way down I kept making sure I knew how to stop incase there was an emergency! Lol! I made it down fine and when I got to the bottom I couldn't believe that I had done it. When we got down it was pitch black, the only lights which we had were the ones on our helmet. The caves are famous for glo worms. On the ceiling there were hundreds of glo worms, we found out that they are actually called glo flies. They hang on the ceilings of the caves and hang webs down to catch their food. The glo is actually their poo! Nice! We found out that once the lava is ready to become a fly, they only live around three days as they have no mouths, so they starve their selves. The only thing they do in their time is to mate and then they die! What a nice life! Lol! Anyway, looking up and seeing them was amazing, they looked like fairy lights.
Then we had to get from one side of the cave to the other. We were harnessed in and went on a zip wire to the other side in darkness, I was so scared as I had no clue where I was going. When everyone got to the other side we had a cup of tea and a biscuit before we jumped into the river. We had to jump in with tube and land on it, I managed to jump and not come out of mine! When everyone had jumped in we floated up the river looking at the glo woms. On the way back we travelled in a big line and we all turned out our lights. We then got out of the tubes and walked the rest of the way, stopping again for another warm drink and chocolate. The water we were in was freezing! We think climbed through some pools with eels in and then we had the option to go out the easy way or the hard way. We all picked the hard way, which was to climb some waterfalls. I was the second to go up, it was so steep! I didn't think I was going to make it but I did and then we had another one! When we finallygot out we were all buzzing! It was such an amazing experience. When we took our wet suits off we had a hot shower and some soup and then we were taken back to the hostel. When we got back it was about 9ish and we went to the bar for some drinks, which was really nice.
Before we left in the morning , we went for a walk around the caves and we watched a wood championship which was quite fun!
Anyway, that's enough for my adventures in Waitomo. I will post again after my adventures here in Taupo! X
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