Trial By Cold Water
Eric almost sank the marriage today, in 10-degree Celsius pitch black water. But Gloriane is a serious trooper, and managed to find some fun in our 5-hour “Black Abyss” caving adventure. What was this like, after a tranquil day in the Shire? Think “from Bilbo to Gollum” and you get the idea.
Awakening to a birdie symphony, we grab some breakfast and head to the caving departure point with an ill-fated good attitude. First step: put on cold, wet wetsuit. Next: sopping booties. Third: clammy rental helmet. Then all aboard a van that deposits us at the top of a 100m (~30 stories!) hole in the ground.
The abseil down the hole is fun enough to forget about the frigid rental suits…for a bit. But it’s c-c-cold down there. We duck through a narrow passageway and hop on a zipline, which we ride down about 15 seconds in complete and total darkness. At the bottom, a quick warm-up with hot cocoa and granola bars, then we stick our butts into innertubes and jump 8 feet down into cave water.
Have you ever been in a cave? Maybe. Have you ever been underwater in a cave? I hope not. Brrr. We paddle down an underground river for a good 5-10 minutes and, at a point, turn off all our headlamps. Up above — constellation upon constellation of tiny blue stars. Glowworms. Thousands of them.
Beautiful! Even after we learn that the glowing stuff is actually their poo. The beauty lasts only so long, however, as our butt cheeks start to fuse together into one solid block of numbness, hanging into the water below. We float back along the glowworm corridor, dismount, and then slosh through more water.
We wade through treacherous passages, slide down a short waterfall, swim a little, and finally make it to a second pit stop in a cramped cavern. Hot Tang and chocolate, and then we have a choice: climb directly up two waterfalls or take the easy way out. Eric easily convinces Gloriane to take the drier route, while he plunges upward into a spray of frigid cave water.
We make it out alive and thaw quickly over some hot soup, then hightail it to the civilized comfort of Rotorua, geothermal paradise of the North Island. Dinner at a night market and refuge in an incredible lakeside B&B round out this day of masochistic adventure.
1 comment
Um, you guys are just the cooolest.
<3