Day 7-10 Caves & Montains

Day 7 or is it 8 - Saturday 14 December

Waitomo – The caves of (not so much) Doom

Before we got on the road today, I realised that given the time shift as I was waking, the IT Services Christmas party would be getting under way. A facebook message later and greetings were exchanged. A photo followed of festivities – complete with Santa hats. Seemed strange in the hot sunshine.

The other thing that happened was that I actually got the first 4 days of this blog loaded online after failed attempts to date. Wifi and data rates in NZ are neither cheap nor fast. I have a card that advertises that I can have a 1000Gb of data in a week. The truth is it would take a week for it to download a single gigabyte!

We departed for a 180Km-ish journey West to the village Waitomo – the cave capital of New Zealand. We had booked a “Black water rafting trip”. The idea being you cross caving with climbing into inner tubes to travel the underground river whilst looking at the glow-worms that illuminate parts of the cave roofs.

Everyone was very excited and we arrived the centre in good time to check in. Looks were exchanged by reception staff. I don’t think I struck them as a natural caver but by brother once commented that it was amazing the spaces I could squeeze through (UK mine exploration trips) – though I was always sent first in case I blocked the exit!

The motley crew in a dry section

We were duly issued with wetsuits everyone else’s was wet and smelly – mine funnily enough dry and hardly used ;). Then on with the wetsocks and wellies into a minibus and away. We were a group of around 16 in total representing many nations. The first step was to learn how to sit – I am good at that. How to make a snake of tube (so we all stay together) and then a practice of how to jump off waterfall backwards – using a wooden platform to rehearse – interesting but we managed. Time to go caving.

Anyone who has been real caving knows it is not a case of walk in and walk out. Unless it’s a public easy show cave. This wasn’t; first up a 1Km hike up through the bush carrying our tube – it was a hot and sunny day.

The Ceiling View

Wet suits are not ideal at this stage.  Then down into a small entrance near the stream bed. The fun started then and we had to crouch (in my case crawl) the next wet section to the first waterfall that was short hop into the tube. We were soon out of the tube again and walking though passage along a stream bed. We came to a section where it was time to put the lights out and look up. Sure enough the ceiling was lit by the LED effect worm larvae.  After a short talk about the lifecycle of a glow-worm it was onward into the cave. We eventually came to the second waterfall which had the added attraction of a pool nicknamed ‘the Blender’ next to it. The idea was to stay clear of it. Someone managed to fall in and ended up being rescued by the leaders. Glad to say it wasn’t one of us and we made the backward leap of faith in the tube (the adrenaline bit of the trip) and formed a train or snake as they called it. It was then time for the highlight of the trip as we all glided together with our lights off passing through various sections and seeing the glow-worms like the a stary night sky. Soon we came to another rapid section which we had to avoid on foot passing under a natural shaft leading to the daylight some 60 metres above. But for us it was back in the tubes for gentle paddle until we eventually emerged into day light in a pool near the car park. We were all alive and unscathed. Time to head back to cave base for soup, showers and dry clothes. See more of this via the company’s online video if you like.

Overnight we had booked the local rather upmarket “Top 10” holiday park – the only site in the village of Waitomo itself. Facilities including pool were spotless – it was hot and sunny and the only downside were that the campers didn’t have much breathing space between us. Time to befriend our Ozzie neighbours! Our plans after today were a little vague so we adjourned to the local brew pub opposite for a couple of pints of the local grog whilst we perused the maps. We decided to go with the plan made one Sunday afternoon last February. Tomorrow would head for the North Island mountains. These have names I don’t remember but the village has a great name of Whakapapa and the mountains are known to us geeks as Mount Doom and Mordor to those familiar with Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films.

What I learned today:

• Glow-worms are not worms at all but they do light up a cave roof very nicely thank you.

Day 9 – Sunday 15^th December

The mountains – Tongariro National Park

"One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its black gates are guarded by more than just Orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep. The great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire, ash, and dust. The very air you breathe is a poisonous fume."

—-Boromir at the Council of Elrond

A glance at the map revealed no clear cut route South East to the mountains. The SatNav took us the direct way and that was basically twisty-turny A-roads in a journey that took over four hours including a stop off for shopping and lunch.

National Park Village borders the dual World Heritage Tongariro National Park (Tongariro Crossing) to the east and the Whanganui National Park to the West, in the middle of a true wilderness wonderland.  The Village is located near the base of Mt Ruapehu, at the intersection of SH4 & SH47 on the volcanic plateau, half way between Auckland and Wellington.  It boasts great views of all three mountains, Mt Tongariro, Mt Ngauruhoe (Mt Doom in the Lord of the Rings filiming locations) and Mt Ruapehu -  a unique dual world heritage area, 300,000 years in the making. http://www.nationalpark.co.nz

We took the van up there we did...

The mountains were fine and we literally went to the end of the road which was at the bottom of the ski lift which for small fortune could have taken us further. Plenty of pictures were taken and jokes about how easy it was to get into Mordor after all. Time was getting on and we resisted the temptation of the chairlift and descended again to the village and a quick look at the tourist information office and a local waterfall.

The ferry booking was for Tuesday and Wellington still far to the South so rather than hang around the mountains we decided to push on. Off we set for another two hours driving. Whilst most

Mount Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom)

driving in NZ had been a pleasure the next two would be a slog. Imagine the A5 in North Wales – all very nice and pretty but a pain in the arse to drive on – especially say the bends around Betws y Coed to Cerrig y Drudion. Well It was like that for about 60 miles and then throw in some chipping laying every 10 miles or so – It is definitely chipping laying season in New Zealand. The van is well and truly pebble dashed.

In the end the mountains and hills subsided and we came river side to the city of Wanganui – another great Maori name. Thoughts of “free camping” after that drive were soon gone as I headed for the local “top 10” for swimming pools, hot showers and a fantastic riverside spot. With a fillet steak supper cooked up in the galley and a few bottles of beer life was good and Windy Wellington only some 200km to the South.

What I learned today:

• It is in fact very easy to walk into Mordor if you’re fit enough. My advice is drive.
• New Zealanders love their loose chippings on the roads!

Day 10 - Monday December 16^th 

Wellington

Not the most idyllic of camp sites

The rest of the journey South was a lot easier and we only came across one lot of chippings being laid. So at around 2pm we rolled into Wellington the compact capital city. Our Wellington Waterfront Camper park actually meant a large car park with portakabin type facilities. But location-wise if you don’t mind its lack of soul it was ideal. Wellington was on our door step.

Our first stop was a trip on the Wellington Cable Car. This is a cable car in the San Francisco sense of things – a cable drawn tram up to the Kelburn lookout hill and botanic garden. All good stuff and even had a cable car museum at the top. The botanic garden runs all the way down the far side of the hill so was mostly avoided save the level top section

Nice climb up inside this

which had a great tree to climb. The three of us were soon having photos taken up there. Sarah kept her feet on the ground.

I like trains

Once back down in the city all the shops were shutting their doors by 6pm. No made Christmas crowds or shopping out here folks – bliss. So how to spend the evening. Having just escaped Mordor we discovered the new Hobbit movie was on show in town. Given Peter Jackson lives here it was good claim to have seen it in his local picture house! We also had the chance to see it in 3D HDR. It was such high definition that I had mild motion sickness by the end. The movie itself was ok – well away and off plot from the book mind.

So to bed in the busy port side car park. In plenty of reviews of this site people moaned about the noise. It may well have been noisy. It rained – the first of the trip. I slept just fine thank you.

Things I learned today:

• A  cable car and single track can pass another at a passing point given enough pulleys for the cable.
• HDR movies are alarmingly immersive.