Our cave adventure began at 8 in the morning so it was another early rise. We were going adventure caving on the Dragons Blackwater Cave Rafting trip in Greymouth. There were three others on our tour which was nice since it was a small intimate group. We were supplied with an outfit consisting of a wetsuit, sweater, booties, two pairs of socks, helmet with a light, and galoshes. Seeing the outfit I knew we wear preparing to be cold.
The hike to the cave was about 40 minutes which took us to the entrance where there were big orange-brown boulders with water rushing past them at the entrance. It was hard to make my way through the cave being pushed by cold water and trying to find secure footing on slippery boulders. As we went deeper into the cave natural light disappeared and the only light there left was the light on our helmets.
At one point we had to jump off a waterfall which was about 6 feet tall. It was scary because when I fell into the water I had trouble resurfacing because of the falling water from the waterfall, but it was adventurous like the tour promised.
Near the end of the cave we were given inner-tubes to float to the end of the cave. I turned off my light and relaxed on the cave’s lazy river. All around me were little blue lights which lit up the cave’s ceiling and walls and it was all very tranquil.
rafting
These were glow worms and they made the cave spectacular. When we were all at the end of the cave we were given hot chocolate and a chocolate bar and gazed at the “starry sky.”
Glow Worms
Then we had to make it back through the cave back to the exit. Our guide sent us through another path at one point which was extremely claustrophobic, and I had to squeeze through cracks that I was sure I was too big for. Somehow I squeezed though but I definitely prefer walls to be a bit further away from me.
Squeezing through a hole
Once we were out of the cave we were given the option to go on a “nature’s water slide.” That was a small stream running down a rather smooth rock surface into a deep pool. We were given mats to sit on and told to slide down. We all hesitated because it looked scary and no one wanted to go first and even our guide said he wouldn’t slide so we were a bit skeptical since we didn’t want our holidays to end in a hospital. Brave Hendrik went first and even though the rock face was smooth there were bumps and dips and Hendrik bounced around like pooping corn. The rest of us were even more skeptical when we saw how Hendrik bounced, and I didn’t go because of my compressed fractured back and we all walked back down. Back at the base we relaxed in the hot tub with a beer and muffin.
Watch the video of Hendrik sliding
Then we had to decide what to do next. We had wanted to visit Able Tasman but in one day we could hardly see any of it. We needed several days to do some hikes and we didn’t have that. Since we had an extra day we decided to go back to Franz Joseph Glacier and try to get on a tour again, of course we called ahead this time around and booked ourselves a full day tour. We had to drive back to Franz Joseph since the tour started early in the morning. On the way there we stopped at Hokitika, which was a very cute town, for dinner. We found a nice looking diner and I couldn’t decide what to eat. I saw “whitebait” sandwich on the menu and I asked the server, who was probably the owner as well, what that was. To that question the friendly man grew excited and exclaimed, “Whitebait is a delicacy. You can’t leave New Zealand without trying whitebait. It costs 60-90 dollars a kilo and the fishing season just ended.” A woman appeared from the back which appeared to be his wife came and showed me a whitebait patty which was an omelet with lots of tiny white fish in it. I was put off since I have never liked to eat little fish because they usually tasted very fishy and their bones would crunch in my teeth making chills run up and down my back. The couple assured me that the bones would not crunch and again told me that I HAD to try it. So I did and was really surprised at how lovely whitebait was. It was great, not fishy and I didn’t feel one bone.
We checked into the top 10 at Franz Joseph again and I was very disappointed to find a trampoline at the campsite since it would have been an awesome way to beak some bones during tequila night. Then we bough food for tomorrow’s adventure and checked the forecast – rain.