So, as you can tell from reading this blog we have lived to tell the tale!! As we drove to the Waitomo Adventures office this morning, both of us were slightly more nervous about today's ‘adventure’. The 100 metre abseil we had signed up for is the highest commercial abseil in the country, and the pictures we had seen in the promotional leaflets looked spectacular…if the nerves stayed at bay we were set to have an amazing 30 minute journey down!
Today as it was a dry caving adventure there was no need for wetsuits, instead we both donned blue ‘boiler’ suits and went for the painter/decorator look! Next was our harnesses, and then helmets, and we were off on a short walk to the sink hole were we would descend into the cave system. We were very lucky, as we were the only people on the tour, so with our guide we had the entire cave system to ourselves.
As we stood on the metal grated platform staring down through the holes the drop was incredible, from this height you could not see the bottom. The first test of whether we were going to go through with it was to sit on a large metal bar hanging over the edge of the platform; Nicola took it slowly, and Ben had no hesitation. Obviously we were strapped into support harnesses, so if we slipped we (hopefully) wouldn’t be going anywhere, but the thought that there was now nothing below us was slightly scary.
Next we went through in-depth abseiling training, that lasted, oh, about 30 seconds…and then we were off the bar and hanging in our harnesses…the nerves subsided and the adrenaline kicked in…we were off on our 30 minute descent to the bottom. (Sorry, as with yesterdays tour our ‘official’ pictures are on a CD, which we can only access when we get to a PC…so Waitomo adventures pictures again).
The views on the way down were absolutely amazing, and all you could hear was the stream running in the cave below. We watched in awe as the landscape changed as we slowly went down, and the terrain got rockier and more damp. As we hit the bottom (not literally) and found our feet it was such a huge sense of achievement!
We stood and took in our surroundings and then started on our climb out; across the stream and into the cave system, where we reverted to yesterdays favourites of squeezing, crawling and climbing through the rocky terrain. Once in the cave system and the light was gone we relied on our head torches and made sure we were strapped to the safety harnesses at all times, as the rocks in here were very slippery.
Perhaps the hardest part was the 30 metre vertical metal ladder climb, which was tough on the arms, and not much fun when you accidently knock your helmet torch off (Nicola), or if you are the last one up and stood at the bottom waiting for your slow girlfriend (Ben)!
Once up it was only a short distance scrambling up rocks and around boulders to the cave mouth where we climbed out into daylight!
Once again, pictures are on a CD, so we will have to put them on the blog once we get to a PC…but trust us, they are worth the wait!!!
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