This blog is divided into 10 separate sections as there are far too many photos to put on one post
Trip to Waitomo & The Legendary Black Water Rafting Company
We headed down to Waitomo for our next experience. We had booked ourselves into the "Black Abyss" tour in the Waitomo cave system with The Legendary Black Water Rafting Company. Believe me, the 5 hour tour was legendary!
Te Awamutu
On the way we passed through the township of Te Awamutu. The birthplace of Tim and Neil Finn. Here inside the museum was a small (unfortunately it was slowly being removed, section by section till its gone), was a section dedicated to Split Enz.
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| Neil Finn's Split Enz stage costume |
Waitomo
For some fun, we decided to stay at the Woodlyn Park theme hotel. We had a choice of an Bristol Freighter B179 Mk31 (front or rear section), a boat, a train carriage or Hobbit Cabins. We took the back end of the aeroplane.
Was very nice. Plenty of room, comfortable bed, just some low doors to remember to duck. Waking up to the scenery in the morning made relaxation complete.
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| The Bristol Freighter |
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| Our accommodation, the rear of the aeroplane with our Nissan Tiida parked out front. |
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| Close up of the port side engine and propeller in the evening sun |
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| A reminder of what to do when entering through the large access door into the cabin. Unfortunately for me, I forgot this on one on the internal doors & cracked my head open. That'll teach me! |
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| You should have seen the mens!!! (only kidding the cabin was fully set out) |
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| The Hobbit cabins |
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| The boat cabins |
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| Waking up to some lovely scenery |
The Legendary Black Water Rafting Company - Black Abyss tour
The 5 hour Black Abyss tour started off with us abseiling 35m down into the cave system. This was followed up by going down deeper on a flying fox, where all lights were turned off each time someone went down. Had no idea when we were reaching the end. Good fun.
Next after a quick hot chocolate and food, we grabbed a rubber inner tube and jumped 12 feet or so into the cold (& I do mean cold) waterway system below. Better mention that we were given 5mm thick wetsuits.
Next we paddled, walked along marvelling at the cave systems and those incredible glow worms. After a final drink, piece of chocolate and light writing the name of the cave system (Ruakuri) it was time to exit by climbing up 3 waterfalls. The first was about 3 meters, next was about 1.5 - 2 metres and the last about 0.5m high. You did have the option of exiting via a flatter route, but no-one did.
Our guide AK, was good fun, keeping us entertained and making us do a "Banana Dance" while we were standing waist deep in the water. In our group we had people from America, Iceland and Australia.
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| Cap of the cave system, the deepest in NZ |
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| Spelling out the name of the cave system with cups over our helmet lights |
The company has other tours, from gentle to extreme, but this one suited us. The hardest part for me was the first waterfall, but nothing was too difficult. Was very good fun.
The Legendary Black Water Rafting Company website is. Worth a look.
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