Jumping backwards off waterfalls

Hello All

I am now in cloudy Raglan, but even on an overcast day it is lovely. With my last post I was leaving Taupo to head to Waitomo. The journey was pretty uneventful (despite getting a bit lost looking for the backpackers and inadvertantly doing some off roading in a Peugeot 307 - not the best plan) and I checked in to Waitomo in the afternoon, after booking my Black Water Labyrinth trip for the next morning at 9am (Mum, I know, the early mornings just won't stop!)

The backpackers (Kiwipackers Waitomo YHA) was good, all very clean and they had beds not bunks so hurrah no painful ladders for my still tender feet. I chatted with a nice lady who was in the same dorm room as me called Katia (orginally from Germany but now living in Dublin, makes for an interesting accent) and we arranged to meet up at 7.30pm for a bite to eat and some beers at the Waitomo Tavern. It was a Saturday night after all! To put in context how kicking the Tavern is on a Saturday night, it might help if I explain that Waitomo has a population of 49. All of the backpackers who had come off the Kiwi Experience bus tour were partying in the hostel (they all looked 12, how old am I! So glad that I have hired a car, even if the bends continue to terrify me, mainly because of the other drivers here, lunatics!) So we could hear the party kicking back at ours and we chilled out in the local pub for local people. Obviously we blended in seemlessly! Fair dues though, they cooked a great steak, actually serving it pink as requested vs cremated.

Around 11ish I hit the sack, while resisting the urge to throw things at the snoring girl in the bed next to me. I finally get an all female dorm and I get the loudest snorer. Go figure! That is another stereotype shattered this trip.

The next morning I packed up and headed to the Blackwater cafe to go on my 3 hour caving, tubing experience. First step was to get in the wet suits, I swear that to work there you need to just enjoy laughing at tourists. Donnie & Ben were lovely though, but you couldn't help feeling that our humiliation added to their enjoyment. Once we were suited up, I waddled to the mini bus that took us out to the caves (don't worry we had hard hats for protection etc). At the caves we picked up the giant rubber rings that we float through some of the caves on. Once armed with these we have to practice throwing ourselves backwards off a low pier thing in to the river with our bums sticking through the rings. That actually was quite scary, as it does require a certain leap of faith to throw yourself backwards, but as we were going to have to do it in the caves off a waterfall, definitely needed to practice first. The water was cold when I hit it but hell it wakes you up better than a cup of coffee (the coffee I had had that morning had done nothing to revive me).

Dressed up, carrying giant rubber rings and not looking in anyway ridiculous we walked through forest to the cave entrance. My feet majorly protesting that they were supposed to be getting the day off.

The cave entrance was very narrow so we all eased in one by one, before sitting there with the lights on our helmets on and getting used to the dark. We had to scramble over more rocks before we reached our first, fall backwards looking stupid in squat position moment. We floated for a while before we had to scramble some more towards the waterfall. Over our heads there were loads of glow worms (or as they were described to us essentially maggots with shiny poo - nice) which was pretty amazing if you ignored the commentary.

At the waterfall we were reassuringly told to really push ourselves out backwards as otherwise we would land on a rock, which would hurt. I took their word for it and with a hefty shove from Ben made it safely in to the pool below. I tell you I could get used to this falling backward lark. So long as I closed my eyes when I hit the water (a contact lense protection thing vs fear) all was good. After that we had a really nice long float and actually switched all our lights off so we were floating peacefully through a completely dark cave. It was fab. Really enjoyed it and it was a shame when we floated out of the caves, I could have done it again.

After that was 'shower and change back in to non so stupid looking clothing' time before going up to the cafe for complementary tomato soup and a bagel. Nice! Or as they say in New Zealand, "choice" and my personal favourite "sweet as"

Once I had fully relaxed after my Waitomo Caves experience I headed off in direction of Raglan and some of the windiest roads I have seen yet (and for those of you that were with me in New Zealand at any point, I really mean it these roads are mental). I came in to the most wonderful surfer town community. Lots of cute little shops, brightly coloured signs, vintage shops, sushi & thai restaurants and off course the beaches. As already mentioned it is a tad overcast but perfect warm balmy day for walking along the beaches. So as I perch precariously on a stool in a shop that also sells some fab jewellery (umm must resist the urge to shop) my feet are very sandy, my T-shirt is speckled with chocolate ice cream (umm it was good but messy) and I am hoping to actually reach the horse trek company to see if I can go out with them tomorrow.

I am really glad that I am going to be here for 2 nights, it has a really nice vibe here. See, here only a matter of hours and I am already using words like vibe! Choice. See ya Dudes....