As soon as our USB drive was loaded with the pictures from zorbing, we were in the car and off to the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. Our wet clothing sprawled on the dashboard, drying in the sunlight as we sped through the rolling, sheep-spotted hills of the surrounding farmland.
After two hours of counting sheep, our clothes were nearly dry and we had arrived at the headquarters for the blackwater rafting trip. I was disappointed that my shirt was still slightly damp - it was slightly cool outside, and I wasn't thrilled to be made any cooler.
The slightly damp shirt ended up being the least of my concerns. After we signed the necessary forms (yes, even if you rip off my helmet and push me over a waterfall, I promise not to sue you), we were led outside to gear up. They handed us booties, boots, helmets with headlamps, and wetsuits that looked as if they'd been worn a thousand times and maybe dragged across the rocks of the cave as well. And they were wet.
Not "damp," but wet - cold, clammy and wet. It took plenty of wiggling, tugging, and pulling to get it on. My shirt now seemed a trivial concern.
Outfitted in our wet wetsuits, rubber boots and helmets, we piled into a bus and drove to the cave. It didn't hit me until we were inside the cave that we would be in a cave - inside the Earth - for the next 3 hours. It was dark, and very much seemed like we might be on a journey to the center of the Earth.
We alternated tramping through the cave on foot and floating down the river when it was deep enough in our inner-tubes. We also made two waterfall jumps that had a surprising technique to them: we were instructed to stand backwards on the ledge, heels hanging over the precipice and water rushing over our ankles. Then, bent forward slightly, with our bums sticking through the donut-hole in the inner-tube, we jettisoned ourselves off backwards and splashed, butt-first, into the black water below.
But the highlight of the expedition was certainly the "glowworms." We spotted a few early on, but nothing was like seeing the entire ceiling covered with them, like stars in the night sky. We formed a chain in our tubes, each sticking our boot-clad feet under the armpits of the person in front of us, and floated through a cathedral-like area of the cave. The ceiling arced above us, and tiny points of blue light seemed to hang suspended in the air.
It was completely breathtaking, floating in silence under the starry cave ceiling. Definitely worth the utter coldness that took a hot shower, change of clothes, and hot soup to remedy.
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