The Legendary Blackwater Rafting Co.

At 8:00 am this morning, I put on a cold wetsuit, harness, and helmet. It was raining hard and visibility was poor, but then again it didn't matter because I wasn't going swimming or climbing, or rafting. I was about to descend into the Waitomo Caverns for a three hour underground tour of the glowworm caverns located roughly 150 feet underground.
It all started by rappelling down through a small (two feet diameter) hole and 100 feet into the ground. We were a group of eight with two guides descending into what the locals had dubbed The Black Abyss. Needless to say THIS was my kind of morning. After a short walk we passed some great limestone formations and what looked like miniature underground coral. Really fascinating. Then it was to the edge of drop off where we clipped in a zipped down into the black until we came to an raised ledge next to an underground river. There, after a quick cup of tea, we grabbed our inner tubes and jumped in! Let me tell you, I quickly became grateful for that wet, cold, smelly wetsuit. Floating down the river for about 20 minutes we turned our lights off and wondered at the thousands of starry points on the ceiling and walls around us. These are the glowworms of NZ that made this cave famous. Honestly, it was surreal, like a starry night at what was now over 200 feet underground. Like nothing I've ever seen.
From there we beached the tubes on another ledge and started walking through the shallows towards the river entrance, slowly making our way back towards the surface. I really enjoyed this part. At times we swam through large caverns and at others we belly crawled through small wormholes barely above the waterline. At the end we climbed up two good sized waterfalls, in narrow passages, stemming off of each wall opposite the waterfall. Really good fun. Thankfully I had a pretty good group and the guides were happy to let me go ahead with them and play around a bit.
W came back out into the sunshine, and yes, the rain. Like Oregon, you can be standing in the sun and heavy rain at the same time in New Zealand. Overall I would say that the morning was legen-wait for it-dary. And well worth the money, in fact, it is probably the last thrill activity I do until I get to Queenstown, where I will be bungy jumping where it all started.