THE BIG ADVENTURE: Waitamo Caves

Today, our drive from Rotorua to Lake Taupo should've taken around an hour and a half. Instead, we drove a few hours west to the famous Waitamo Caves where people on our bus were given the chance to pay over $100 for to take part in numerous activities such as seeing glow worms, abseiling, or black water rafting. Hummmph.

"What if we don't want to pay for any of these activities? Is there anything to do for free here?", I complained to the driver and the rest of the bus. Finding out that we were going to be stopping here for three hours after a two hour detour there followed by two hours back to Taupo didn't make matters any better. We could all sense the driver's rising guilt as he realised what a silly idea this detour was for many people. It wasn't his fault though - it was part of the Magic bus itinerary so we had to go. And sure enough around ten people parted with their money to get involved in an activity. I was becoming quite sick of all this expensive, organised fun being thrown in our faces - we really wanted to enjoy our one afternoon in Lake Taupo and now we weren't going to arrive for another few hours.

When we arrived at the Waitamo Caves, the driver promised to take all those who wanted a 'free' activity on a special walk he knew of... this sounded good to us and very reasonable of him so we waited around for an hour or so before he took us in the bus to a national park.

He revealed his love for caving and, as we walked around the national park, instructed us to climb up a wall and into a very thin gap which would lead, we soon realised, into a pitch black cave. Oh, one more instruction - don't touch the walls.

I went first and must admit how difficult it is not to touch the walls when you're standing in pitch blackness and don't know whether there will be a hole right in front of you or a step. The reason for such caution was revealed to us when the driver shone his torch at the wall in front of us...

The Cave Weta - there are around 70 species of Weta, exclusive to New Zealand and here we were staring a these creepy crawlies all around us in the pitch black. They are huge. The driver assured us that they only jump sometimes but when they do, they jump FAR due to the strength in their back legs. We were quick to get out of there after hearing this.

Chris and I enjoyed the rest of our time here, walking through the Ruakuri National tunnel, looking at the cave formations and different fauna. It ended up being a pretty nice, if unnecessary, stop on the way to Lake Taupo. The driver's (Karl) kindness, showing us our own cave trip for free and introducing us to New Zealand's Cave Weta, made up for it all in the end.