Anyhow, I've spent a little bit of time trying to decide what to write about. Nick kicked our segment off with such a ridiculously embarrassing story about our adventures in London, (embarrassing, and yet so true to our life) that I almost didn't know where to go next. (And by the way, for anyone who's interested, I went back and added some pictures to that post! We were kind of cute in the old days!) I thought about writing about a very similar story, almost as ridiculously embarrassing. It involved our international trip the very next summer. As if we didn't learn our lesson the first time around, less then a year later we found ourselves again sleeping in a precarious place to try and avoid paying for a hotel. This time, we slept in our car in a grocery store parking lot after learning that it was illegal to sleep on the California beaches. The story went on from there with us almost missing our flight to Honolulu the next day, but seeing as how this story wasn't quite as dramatic as our London mugging, I actually decided to focus on something else for my flashback Friday. I picked another of our crazy adventures; however, this time not entirely one of our own making.
Let me explain.
After convincing Nicholas to back-pack around Europe for two months during the first summer we were married, I started to believe that anything was possible. As a result, not long after we returned home from Europe, I hit Nick up for another big summer vacation. This time I wanted to travel to the South Pacific. I wanted to hit Hawaii, New Zealand, and go back to his mission stomping grounds--Australia. At first the idea met with some resistance, but eventually I prevailed upon him to make the dream into a reality.
Once I got the green light for the trip, I delved knee deep into researching where we would visit in each place. Nick had a pretty good handle on Australia, so I spent my time looking into the other destinations. Eventually we got a pretty good itinerary together.
One of the things that we thought would be fun to do, while we were in New Zealand, was visit the famous Waitomo glow worm caves. Nick had been to the caves when he toured New Zealand with his parents. They enjoyed a quiet boat ride through the caves, and Nick and I decided it would be an outing worth repeating. So, I got online and searched "glow worm caves". The first website I went to was that of the Legendary Black Water Rafting Company. They advertised a unique kind of caving adventure. Rather than taking a boat ride through the caves, you could book a tour with them and actually experience the caves first hand. An experienced guide would walk you through the caves with a close up view of the massive vaults and spectacular scenery. It sounded like it would be lots of fun, so, in a moment of insanity, I booked their most exclusive option: The Lost World All Day Caving Epic. We were young and healthy, I thought. It will be an adventure. And that it was.
On the day of our Epic Adventure, we woke early and drove to the middle of nowhere to meet our group. The tour building was modest, and after checking in, each of us was pointed to an out-house style dressing room where we could get changed into out wetsuits. I was surprised they were having us change, but then again, keeping our regular clothes dry seemed like a good idea.
After we were all changed, we were then each given a bag full of gear. Okay, I thought, I guess they want to give us every safety precaution. That seemed like a good idea to me too. So, I took the gear and boarded the old white van with the other five tourists who would be sharing our adventure. They all seemed very normal. No one looked crazy or deranged in any way. How could I have guessed we were all about to plunge to our death...or I guess near-death might be more accurate, since we're still alive. Anyway, we'll get to the dying part in a minute. For the time being, we were all just riding along through the pleasant New Zealand hill country. Nobody was alarmed, and Nick and I were still excited about the super outing that we had spent a fortune to go on.
We drove for what felt like a long time in the holey old van, and then the driver stopped and ushered us all out. Then, much to our surprise, he drove away and left us on a rocky hill in the middle of nowhere. There was no visitor's center anywhere in site, and where were these experienced tour guides we signed up for anyway? Little did we know that in New Zealand "experienced" means crazy, young, and anyone willing to lead. I don't know that there was any experience involved. As a result, when two of the "kids" who had been on our van announced that they were actually our guides, Nick and I exchanged the first of many worried looks we would share on that crazy day. Here we were, with two kiwi guides, in the middle of no where. There wasn't even any cave in sight. What the heck had we gotten ourselves into!?
Here's a shot of us right after we climbed out of the van.
"Open up your gear." the first guide directed. "And let's get everyone harnessed up." What on earth were they talking about, I wondered? And then when they led us over to a giant hole in the middle of the ground, it all started to make sense. The cave we would be exploring wasn't above us, it was in fact 300 feet straight below us. And the only way to get to it was to walk out onto a rickety old plank, jump off, and then free fall abseil straight to the cave bottom. I can do this, I thought. I went repelling at girl's camp. Only then I went with leaders and expert rock climbers, not a couple of high school drop outs out to make a few quick bucks. Still, there was no van to take us back to our clothes and cars. Be brave, I told myself. You're not going to die today. (At least not yet, anyway.) So, I got harnessed up, and took my turn to make the breath-taking and actually quite amazing drop into one of the most beautiful caves I have ever been in. The abseil was actually more invigorating than I had anticipated, and I began to taste a little of the thrill of our great epic adventure.
Here's a photo of us after the abseil.
Following the drop, we pulled off our harnesses and put on thick red helmets, with head-lights built right into them. Then we started off into the cave. We walked and walked, enjoying the spectacular views we had been promised. The deeper we got into the cave, the darker and narrower the cave passages became. Eventually we dropped to our knees and began crawling. Then, as we approached a tiny opening in the cave, one of the guides instructed me to get on my belly and lead the way through. I wasn't so sure about that. I don't have bad claustrophobia, but scooting on my belly into a dark tunnel didn't appeal to me much. Yet, what else was I going to do? So, I started scooting. After a few minutes, I began to hear the sound of rushing water. That's odd, I thought. It sounds like a river is running through this cave. While that thought was still forming my mind, a terrible thing happened. My fingers reached forward feeling for the cave bottom, and instead found a lot of cool, thin air. I lifted my head, and was surprised to realize that my head and shoulders were no longer in the tunnel. The cave had suddenly opened up. I carefully pulled myself up, and found myself standing on a two foot ledge. There was only room for one person to stand on the ledge, and soon Nick was at my heels asking me to move out of the way. "I can't" I practically shouted. "There's no place to go!" Then, the most startling command echoed through the cave walls. "Jump!" shouted one of the guides. "What!" I said. I'm not going to jump. I can't see a thing." "Just jump." was the reply. "There's a river down below."
I pointed my headlight down, into the thick darkness. I could hear the river running, but I had no idea how far the fall would be, how fast the river was running, and if I would encounter rocks on my way down. "Oh, my, gosh!" I thought. Now, I'm really going to die. Looking back, I don't know what I was thinking, but somehow, my legs sprung up and I launched off of the ledge out into the darkness.
When I finally splashed down into the cool cave water, the first thought that came to my mind was: there must not be liability laws in New Zealand!! Nobody had even asked me if I could swim before we entered this cave, and here I was treading water in a fast flowing river with dark forms jumping over my head.
Once we were all in the water, we swam up stream a ways, until we came to a small waterfall that blocked off the cave. "Up you go!" the guide said, pointing straight up the waterfall. This time I was kind enough to let someone else go first. In fact, Nick and I were actually the last to climb up the falls, and it was a good thing too, because it took me a few tries to get up the dumb thing. You had to climb straight up the rock through the waterfall. One wrong placement of your hand or foot and the water carried you straight down, thrusting you under the water and spitting you out down stream. Then you would have to swim up stream again and try to make the climb once more. When I finally climbed out on top, and Nick pulled up behind me, I was completely exhausted.
"No worries mates!" the guide happily announced as we all rested at the top. "It's all down hill from here." And that it was, quite literally. The only problem was, it was all down hill kind of like a water slide is all down hill! At the top of the waterfall, we turned down a new tunnel and climbed right into another fast moving body of water. This time, however, we were swimming with the current, and when we drifted into a giant boulder, the guide simply announced that we would have to swim under the boulder to get to the exit of the cave. "No way!" I said. Every thing else I have survived, but I am not swimming in some dark underwater tunnel with no one to rescue me when my hair gets caught on a rock and I never pop out on the other side! The others began to gather their wits about them. They took a deep breath and one at a time disappeared under the water. But I was serious. "I'm not doing it," I told Nick. "I will stay in this cave for the rest of my life. I am not swimming under that rock!" Luckily for me, when the guide decided I was for real, he showed me a secret passageway that I could walk through. Thank heavens too! Because if not, I would be floating in that river still today!
On the other side of the boulder we finally caught a glimpse of daylight up ahead. It had taken us almost seven hours to finally reach the cave's end, and I won't lie, I was ready to crash. Our group stopped and took this photo:
And then we hiked out to a dirt road where the trusty old white van was waiting to pick us up. They drove us back to a little pub, fed us some dinner, and sent us on our way. It was one of the craziest things Nick or I ever did, and after writing up this point, I'm reminded of how good it is to be alive today!
Well, it was good reminiscing with you, but I think that's about all for flashback Friday today. Except, I am going to put a few photos of us in Hawaii up. We went to Hawaii for a few days right before New Zealand, and I'm not sure our three day visit is going to warrant a write-up. So here are a few photos just for memories sake.
At our little hotel.
At the Polynesian Cultural Center.
In front of the Hawaii Temple.
Til next time.
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