Waitomo Black Water Rafting

Today we got up early to head to one of the activities at the top of both of our must do lists - black water rafting. After being fitted for wetsuits and rubber boots, we were driven to the start of the tour, where we repelled down 35m to the cave below. We then ziplined through a dark cavern, lit only by the glowworms overhead. These were just the first of many glowworms seen on the tour.

Glowworms are the larva stage of a fungus fly and use their glowing butts to attract insects in the cave to their mucus-y strands used to trap prey similarly to a spider web. They spend about 9 months in this stage before becoming adults. As adults they don't have mouths, so they only live 2-3 days, most of which time they spend mating and laying eggs. The first eggs to hatch, eat their siblings and the process repeats.

Anyways, after ziplining we jumped into the cold water with our tubes and paddled and drifted through more caverns with glowworms lining the ceiling. We then ditched our tubes and continued by foot/swimming through the cave, climbing up waterfalls and sliding down slides as we went.

We both had an incredible time and thought this was a unique and adrenaline pumping experience!Read more