If you need a short break away, New Zealand is the perfect place. Go for a week or just an adventure packed weekend.
New Zealand South Island 3rd to 6th Aug 2017
This trip was just a quick weekender together, as Matt was once again heading out on Tenacious. He’d had been nominated as a potential Watch Leader by one of the permanent crew, after our trip on Tenacious a year ago, which was a huge surprise for both of us. Matt had received an email from the Jubilee Sailing Trust, the builders and owners of Tenacious, saying that watch leaders where urgently required for a trip in New Zealand, and watch leaders pay half price, it was too good an opportunity to pass up, as Tenacious was heading back to the UK. To keep his “watch leader” status he has to do one every 3 years…. Yeah not sure that’s going to happen now she is back in the UK, and there’s so many other tall ships he would love to sail on.
And as Matt does, he starts Googling things to do in New Zealand’s North Island, as he suggested that I come over for a long weekend before he boards Tenacious. Now there are a few things that Matt absolutely loves – tall ships, all things Vikings, Roman history and caves. So, when he came across the Waitomo Caves, I heard that catch cry again “Right…we’re doing it!”.
He booked 2 days of caving at Waitomo Caves with Waitomo Adventures. Our first day we were booked in to cave Haggas Honking Holes, yes, a rather unfortunate name, and St Benedict’s Caverns. Both tours are about 2 – 3 hours long.
It’s funny how when Matt suggests these activities I sit there and have those “what if” moments, for example, with caving it would be thoughts like, (This is probably a bad example as I don’t have these thoughts about caving) “What if the cave collapses?” “What if the rope breaks?’ They aren’t screaming thoughts, like to the point of not being able to do it, just little fleeting whispers in the back of my mind, they are thoughts that are quickly forgotten. And I certainly don’t have any of these thoughts while actually doing these sort of activities.
On the first day we were extremely lucky as it was only Matt and myself on both tours, so we were able to take our time, the only downside was not being able to take your own photos, but Waitomo Adventures take quite a few and give them to you at the end.
The first cave was that very unfortunately named, Haggas Honking Holes. A short, tight, abseil down to begin with, then it was into the cave system. Haggas Honking Holes is not the largest cave in NZ so there was a bit of crawling in tight places. We had to rappel down another cliff, but this time the water that was flowing through the cave made it a little more challenging. Once down our very funny tour guide told us we had to “just follow the water”. How do you follow the water when there’s only rock walls and dead ends? Then we noticed this small gap where the water was flowing through. We looked at our guide and said questioningly, “do you mean squeeze through there?” “Just follow the water” was his reply. So, we laid down in the freezing water, thankfully they supplied full wet suits, and started to slither our way through. It was becoming a tight squeeze and I was really starting to wonder how Matt was going to fit with his broad shoulders. But he made it through and we continued on. The stalagmites, stalactites and all the other formations were really amazing, and to ponder on how long it has taken for them to form is truly unbelievable.
At one point the guide pointed to a rock and said “See that rock?” “Yes” we replied. “Good” and left it at that. Hmm weird.
Now my memory may have this in the wrong section of the cave, but there was another section where the guide pointed to the cave wall and said “we’re going through there”. Ummm hello, that’s a rock wall? The guide explained that just under the surface of the water was a hole through to the other side, you have to put your legs through first, then your right arm and use it to push on the wall on the other side to pull your body through, but don’t forget you have to twist to the right, and lastly your head. “Easy” he says “Oh and if you get stuck, I’ll pull on your legs”. Right me first, Umm, why does Matt always go last? So down in the water I get, put my legs through, reach through to try and find the other side, OK its not that wide, one big breath and through I go. Yeah OK it was easy, but it was freezing. We wandered about 5 meters downstream, where it joined another stream, I looked back and questioned the guide, “Where we just there?” “Yes” he replied. “So why did you make us slip through the freezing water?” He laughed “Just for fun”.
The guide came to a place in the cave where he asked if we knew why it was called Haggas Honking Holes, and obviously we didn’t. He pointed to this sort of deep crevasse/hole and said this is why. I was a little puzzled as there were crevasses and holes all over the place, why was this one different? Now I’m not going to tell you what happened next, because you may want to visit this cave, and I don’t want to be a spoil sport, but it was really amazing. I’ll tell you if you ask me personally.
We continued on, ducking and climbing, till we stopped and the guide said “See that rock?” “What, wait, is that the same rock. OMG it is”. The guide explained that we had basically done a figure 8, crossing over our previous path but only a couple of meters higher. So, we exited out were we started.
The second cave that day was St Benedict’s Cavern. Just like Haggas Honking Holes, it starts off with a 60 meter abseil to enter. You make your way through the cave system with huge stalagmites and stalactites, until you reach the area the cave was named after, St Benedict’s Cavern. It is a massive 100m long and 40 meters high amphitheatre. We were shown a rock that had a fossilized sea shell in it, proving that this area was once covered by the ocean a few million years ago. Whilst the cavern was stunning to look at, the true beauty of the cavern was when we all turned our head lamps off, although you couldn’t see a thing, as it was pitch black, to just sit perfectly still and take in the total and utter silence was amazing. I don’t think I have ever experienced “total” silence and I tried to hear something…. Anything… a shuffle of feet, the sound of breathing… but I could hear nothing.
After the headlamps where turned back on it was over to the flying fox. The flying fox was installed so that the stalagmites were not damaged by visitors walking through them. We were given the option of going down with headlamps on or all headlamps off, whilst we took a few seconds contemplating the choice we wanted to make, our guide said “right… Lights off it is then!” Once I was hooked in, yes, I had to go first again, and ready to launch, the word was given to turn all lights off. Then in total darkness I went hurtling through the cave for about 40 meters. It was a bit of a worry when you didn’t know when you were going to come to a screaming stop.
With a bit more trekking through the cave you come to a ladder where you exited out into daylight through a tunnel, with a door at both ends, they have a buff zone so that the outside temperature doesn’t affect the cave. Unlike Haggas Honking Holes you don’t get wet in this cave.
Can you see what I see? 
Our second day was an epic 7 hours of exploring the Lost World, you can take a shorter version, which is only 4 hours. Your taken to a platform that seams to be floating above the cave entrance, and looking down into the lush greenery you almost half expect a dinosaur to be wandering around, it looked very Jurassic Park.
Your harnessed up to rappel the 100-meter drop, and put into a team of 4 along with a guide. It was a slow trip down to start with, because one of the other trekkers was quite scared, and you had over 100 meters of rope below you which meant you literally had to try and lift it so you could lower yourself. Once safely on the ground we had morning tea, while we marvelled at the world that we found ourselves in. It was so green with large ferns growing up the sides of the entrance.
We set off to explore the cave, but first we had to strike a pose on a huge boulder with the sunlight filtering down from a small entrance. If you do the Epic 7-hour tour then prepare to get wet, for not long after our posing pictures we were into the freezing water to continue deep into the cave. In places the water was so deep that you had to pull yourself along the rock walls, as you not only fought against the rushing water, but also struggled not to lose a gumboot. You would merge out of the water, drain out your gumboots, trek a few meters, warm up a little, then find yourself back in the water.
We came to what looked like a part of a cave collapse and the guide gathered us around and said we have to slither under this massive rock. We checked it out and I was thinking that’s going to be a very tight squeeze for me, let alone Matt. We watched a couple others wiggle their way through, who were quite slender, Then the guide turned to Matt and said your turn. Matt just looked at him, laughed and said “I’m not going to fit through there!”. The guide said he had to; it was the only way forward. Matt got down on the ground, placed his head and part of his shoulders under, and that was it, there was no way in hell he was going to fit, that’s when the guide said “Well you better wander around that way and bypass the rocks”. So, I was going to give it a crack, about halfway through I got stuck and realised my safety harness was caught on a rock, so I squeezed my hand under myself and freed it, then continued to snake my way through. The width of the crawl was probably just under a body length.
As there was evidence in Haggas Honking Holes cave of sea life, we were shown a couple of fossilised whale bones about halfway through our trek. We also had a rest stop on some flat rocks where we all turned our headlamps off and the ceiling of the cave came alive with glow-worms, which is what Waitomo is famous for.
Closer to the exit there was quite a large waterfall and you were given the option of trying your luck at climbing to the top or whimping out and using the ladder. A few opted for the ladder, but I was undecided and wanted to see how a few went climbing the waterfall, there was quite a lot of water coming over it. The guide went first to show the adventurous how it was done, or not done, as was the case for his first attempt as the water bombarded him and he went plummeting back into the pool below. His second attempt was successful. So, after watching a few others climb and then watching Matt struggle against the torrent of water, I aptly choose the ladder.
We continued to follow the stream and finally came out into the day light and headed back to base where the guides cooked up a storm on the BBQ, and they were the best steaks ever.
Out of the 3 caves that we did that weekend it is really hard to say which one you thought was the best, they all had different experiences, they all were challenging and they all were beautiful. So, if time or money is not an issue then all I can say is do them all, its worth every cent. The only way you can do these caves is with Waitomo Adventures as they have exclusive use of the caves. Oh and they are awesome.
Cash Strapped Travellers 