Waitomo Caves - The Black Abyss

After travelling from Raglan on the morning of the 2nd January, we arrived at Waitomo Caves ready to start our journey into the caves. The caves are primarily famous for the intriguing glowworms that hang from the ceiling illuminating the caves like stars on a clear night.

However, we didn't want to just look at a few glowworms so we decided on a more adventurous trip - it didn't disappoint! We went with the Black Water Rafting Company on their 'Black Abyss' tour. This was a five hour journey into the caves starting with a 37m abseil into and through a small black hole in the ground! Having survived stage one, we scrambled 20m through the cave and promptly did a 'flying fox' (zip line) in the dark - Jen's scream is still echoing through the caves now!

Before plunging into the icy water, we took off our harnesses and had hot chocolate and flapjack with our legs dangling over the edge. We then took a leap of faith as we jumped 5m into an underground plunge pool with our black inner tubes firmly held around our bums!

With the adrenalin seemingly over for the time being, we braved the freezing water and paddled upstream further into the cave. This was a fantastic opportunity to see the glowworms and other cave features such as stalagmites and stalactites.

After the tubing, we headed through the cave on foot; clambering through tiny holes and swimming through icy cold deep pools. Before resurfacing we had to climb up two underground waterfalls without ropes or harness. This was one of the highlights, but the whole trip was great fun and really challenging.