Today is sadly our last full day in New Zealand and it’s been an amazing trip so far. To top it off, our plan for today was to go through some caves and look at glowworms!
We got up a bit earlier today to make it to our tour in time. After a quick bite to eat and a farewell to Madi who was leaving a day earlier than us we were in the cars and on our way.
About two hours later we arrived at the Waitamo Cave visitor center and then boarded a tourist bus that took us just down the road a little to our first stop, the Ruakuri Cave.
After a quick regroup at the entrance and a safety briefing we made our way beyond the giant door and into the concrete tunnel that leads to the cave. There was a massive spiral ramp which looked really cool when it was all lit up. I think the tour guide waited for the whole group to be together before turning on the lights because the big reveal does look pretty impressive.
Once down the ramp the caves were very easy to walk through, the majority of it was tall enough for everyone to walk normally and there was a concrete path with a hand railing. However, there were sections where the hand railing housed a sensor that would sound an alarm if someone leant to far over. This was only at the sections of the path where the delicate limestone was within reach of tourists though.
The cave was really nice. While I’ve been through caves like this before, somehow it always amazes me how a seemingly simple drip of water ends up forming this alien landscape underground!
We eventually got to a section where there were a few glowworms around and our guide showed us how they have very fine lines dangling from them for feeding. When the light shines on them at just the right angle you can just see them but while the lights are off (once our eyes adjusted a little) we got to see the dimly lit fluorescents dotted around the cave from all the worms. It was like looking out at a black sky with little blue/green stars everywhere and the sound of running water in the background from the nearby underground rivers - pretty cool.
As we continued along the path, walking past other groups of tourists we could tell the ones that were on a normal tour like us and the ones that were a bit more hardcore, those groups were smaller and they had hardhats and climbing gear. This cave also hosts “black water rafting” tours where people take inflatable rafts through the dark cave with headlights on, this also includes going through a few rapids in the dark and some even include abseiling! Our tour was a much more relaxed tour than that.
We past lots of really interesting formations and even some fossils from when the cave was fully submerged many years ago before arriving back at the iconic spiral ramp we used to get down. Our tour was over but the next tour would be straight afterwards and promised to include much more glowworms!
We arrived back at the visitor center only to find out our next tour was cancelled due to flooding and dangerous levels of CO2 so we got a refund and went in search of lunch.
We were in a very touristy location, as evident from all the tourists and tour buses but there wasn’t many places to park or many shops and restaurants around due to the confined roads around this mountainous area but we eventually found a “General Store” where we could get a feed.
We ordered some food which took ages to come out and in the meantime played some billiards while Amy was researching other attractions in the area. The group voted on jet boating but there was some indecisiveness and the cost was a bit higher than the glowworm tour. Eventually, after much discussions about credit card fee waivers we booked in with CamJet and headed there straight after lunch.
After about an hour of driving, we arrived at a fairly quiet residential area. We eventually came across Aaron, our jet boat captain. He seemed pretty keen to get the boat out because the river was much higher than it usually is thanks to the recent cyclones.
I’ve never been on a jet boat before and I found it pretty fun. It felt like he was going pretty fast and getting really close to the river banks and overhanging trees but it was very well controlled. I kept thinking how fun it would be to drive on one of these, no wonder he was so keen!
The ride was great, along the way Aaron would point out interesting things like local wildlife and a few waterfalls. There was even one section where a giant tree had fallen over a long time ago and it had been resting along the riverbank wall. Normally, Aaron would drive in the boat through the gap between the riverbank wall and the tree but because the water was a massive 4 meters higher than usual, this gap was basically non-existent now.
At the end of the river we arrived at a hydro station. We got to see the water shooting out of the dam and spiralling in a large catchment area with the banks covered in a marshmallow like foam that accumulated from the turbulence. The water was pretty choppy here but also nice and open to do more 360 degree spins. New Zealand get the majority of their power from renewable sources and seeing the huge dam walls up close in person was pretty cool.
Aaron had fitted the boat with a camera and for a fee would provide us with a video of our ride. We all chipped in and got the video but it was a little disappointing. While we all felt exhilarated during the ride, the video did not convey the same feeling we got of being pushed back in our seat and near missing tree branched. Instead it looked more like a leisurely cruise on a windy day, even with the “special effects” but the video was a good way for us to remind of of the fun day we had.
Our final stop was a very nice Japanese restaurant for dinner before chilling out at the hotel watching TV and having a end-of-trip/happy-marriage-celebration drink.