Glow worms(nearly)
Trip Start
Jul 06, 2006
1
51
73
Trip End
Jun 15, 2007
Greymouth, New Zealand
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Arriving in Greymouth, the west coasts largest town (!), I had booked onto a tour to go cave rafting and visit the glow worms that live down there, plus do a bit of climbing in and out water caves - sounded awesome! So I dumped my bags in our hostel, Noah's Ark and headed straight to meet my tour guide, Pete, and the group. We had a quick debrief and got into our gear - 2 thermal tops, 2 pairs of thermal socks and a pair of rubber socks, a wet suit and wet suit jacket, some wellies, a hat and a helmet. We were told not to keep any other tops or trousers on, as they would not be the right material to keep us warm and we would die of hypothermia.....didnt fancy that! The rain was pouring and I was imagining the water level filling up inside the cave and I must say I started to get nervous. Our tour guide was pumping us up en route, telling us what to expect and that the rain will sound very eerie inside the cave. We then had a 40 minute walk towards the cave through such beautiful temperate rainforest, it was gorgeous, very dense and quite up and down - we were really trekking! The rain continued throughout this time and we scrambled up and down the mudbanks, getting wet and very dirty and excited about reaching the cave. We had to cross a few rivers on the way, as the bridges had become flooded with the heavy rainfall. The currents were pretty strong and I had to hold on to the bridge to make it accross without falling over. Plus we had to walk over an Indiana Jones style swing bridge - was very adventurous even before we got to the cave. The water level, however, was an indication that it may not be safe to enter the cave, and we were warned by our tour guide that this may be the case. Indeed, when we finally reached the cave opening, the river running into it was raging big time and the water level was over a foot over the safety guage for entering the cave. Gutted. So, disappointed we headed back, but really enjoyed the walk to and from and of course got a full refund, so it wasnt all bad. I couldnt really hang around without weather guarentee, as the others were keen to move on, so its something to come back for!
The evening was spent having a little wander around the tiny, cute, very quiet town of Greymouth and then we all caught some Johnny action and watched Pirates of the Carribean 3 and consumed a disgusting amount of pick n mix (really cheap here - couldnt say no), it was a great way to spend an evening.
