As the crow flies

Blackwater Rafting

My time in NZ is so much faster paced than in Fiji - I have done so much in the short time that I've been here.

In this little town of 100 people there are this vast network of underground limestone caves. Many of them have water flowing through them, so of course some people would want to go tubing through them. That is essentially what blackwater rafting is. You don a thick wetsuit, some lovely overshorts, white boots and a hard hat with a light on it. And of course an inner tube. Then you head into the caves.

I had so much fun at this place, it is definitely a highlight of my trip so far. One of the first things we had to do once in the cave was to pass through this low part. This required lying perfectly flat on your tube so you can fit through this section which had a 1 to 2 ft clearance from the top of the water. That was probably the most difficult part of the whole thing. The water that we floated down had a current but no rapids. Where the rapids were it was too shallow so we walked through them. We did have to jump backwards off two waterfalls though (1ft and 4ft drop).

The cave formations were not spectacular, but they were cool - I just think caves are cool anyways. But there were glowworms in these caves. So at one point we all turned off our lights as we were floating and the roof of the cave was lit up like the night sky out in the country, but with green stars instead of white. It was quite impressive. It was the maggot poo that was glowing. At one point there were no glowworms so we were just floating in complete blackness.

I recommend this activity for anyone who likes caves and likes water (even cold water). Primo.

posted by Aaron @ 5:07 PM