Only 3 working days in this week, well i guess the kiwi season is goin to the end, i just hope i can earn as much as i can before travel to other places. And i gotta look for the other job after this, but looking for job in winter is not easy at all.
But hey, i knew all these pressure before i made my decision to come over, well spirit of backpacking, don't plan anything, thing will be fine anyway.
Alright i just wanna express my current mood, and now come back to this post.
Rafting is the must in NZ, although i just knew it when i was here, but yea the natural resource is a gift for NZ to develop their tourism and outdoor activity like rafting.
You guys might have done rafting somewhere, but i bet you guys has lesser chance to do black water rafting, which mean, raft under the world famous glowworm cave in Waitomo.
Yea if you realise i were saying rafting, and yea i'm in winter, and yea, rafting is wet, not dry. Mean i goin to the water by winter, under the cave summore, the temperature was like only 5'c or below.
And hey i'm not mad, Jim the tour guide told us its same in the all season, the water is under the cave and the temperature will not change no matter what season is in, just we will freeze, real freeze when we get up from the cave.
To prove you how cold the weather is, i captured this:
Yoyo, can you see me????
Kiwi calls this niddle
even grass are frozed
Zoom in
So you can imagine, after all 3 hours we been in the cave and get up from it, with no sunlight but chill wind, we might just be like my car mirror or the grasses outdoor. XD
Yea call me mad, but if i weren't i won't gave up everything in Malaysia and come to NZ, ain't?
Well i have another 6 crazy mates to go the trip with me, Alicia, Williem, Yuan Ting, Evita, Emily and Kaie Sieng, drove all the way to Waitomo from Tauranga for the world famous black water rafting and the glowworm
For more info you may see http://www.waitomo.com/. Including tour booking and so on. Just to remind you guys, you must book before go, they don't take walk in tourist and you can get 10% if you book online.
On the way
Waitomo Caves, here we come!
Different tours
We took Black Labyrith, for beginner
Brochure and bill
3 hours tour including all the equipment, like footwear, tubes, wetsuits, helmets, abseiling devices and safely equipment, and we booked it online so it was like $99 per person and its absolutely worth the price!
http://www.waitomo.com/cave-tubing.aspx you may refer this, this is the tour i had joined.
Well get all the suit wore, 2 tour guides Lucy and Jim brought us to choose our tube, then leaded us to the river side, and asked us to jump!
What the expression! Heck!
And i tubing
I'm ugly like hell, but i have no choice to post the photos up because we're not allow to bring camera but Lucy and Jim can, i have only this photo :-(.
Well doesn't mean this is the beginning of the tour, this is just the mini training to teach us the right way to jump into water when we were in the cave, because there will be absolutely dark and we have no time to practice the way to jump into water with our tube.
The cruel part is, we have to get up from the river, and walk to the entry of the caves in chill weather! But this is the walkway to warm up before entering to the caves.
Before go deep to the cave
Inside the cave, before go to the deep river
ready to jump
Exit, after all 3 hours
We had walking, caving, cave tubing and water fall jumping (I DID! Jump from a small water fall inside the cave is horrible!) then rafting to see the sprinkling glowworm on the top of the cave.
That is the unforgettable moment in my life, you guys might seen thousand of sprinkling stars in somewhere, might seen glowworm in somewhere, but like a galaxy of glowworm i bet you can never seen in else where but Waitomo Cave, and no one are allow to take photos, you want to see you, go raft yourself, enjoy the most beautiful natural in NZ :).
So the above photos taken in very low quality, Jim and Lucy the one allow with camera and in fact, a lot of places we're not allow to do anything except focus on own footstep, very very very slippery and dangerous when walking inside the deep river with rocks, if you falls, you might drown.
Before Tongariro Crossing (next post), Waitomo black water rafting is the top dangerous activity in my list, its even more dangerous than bungy jumping, its talking about all 3 hours focus yet bungy jumping just few minute of matter.
And never forget we were in winter, we're not allow to wear glove coz can be slippery, 7 of us had frost bite after the rafting, because of the coldness of the water, Jim and Lucy keep on telling us to move our hand and finger eventhough we're just walking to keep our hand out of numb.
Inside the cave, you're blind if you turn your helmet light off (you have to turn it off almost all the time to protech the glowworm), all you depending is your touch to the rock, and follow every single step that the tour guides walked, only they knew which rocks are safe to step and which are actually not.
If you want to see more about the caves, below are the official photos that Jim and Lucy gave us.
Black water rafting wasn't in my plan actually, but fortunately i had done that and its absolutely worth the price, it is hard, it is tough, but it is a great experience, especially the sprinkling glowworm galaxy, even the official photo couldn't capture how amazing it is, you must go yourself, and memory the scene in your mind.
And below just some photo of the tour company, including the equipment store.
After changing and had the hot soup that prepare by the company, we went to the visitor center, was thinking to go for the walk of the other cave.
Oh yea, Waitomo with a lot of different cave, the must go is glowworm cave, but you can actually choose to go wet or dry, if you go for dry, that is a walkway inside the cave, you can still see the glowworm, with warm clothes, and looking down the river to laugh some mad people like me go for wet in the winter.
inside the visitor centre
On the way home
Favor photos of the day, thanks Will
Well next post, is the most meaningful activity i did so far in NZ, Tongoriro Crossing, wanna know what it is about? You might google it before i post the entry. =)
Alright gtg! Have a great weekend peeps!
Tauranga, NZ
20100813, 0806pm
Rach in wishing happy bday to someone mood.
cool
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