Day two started nice and early. Breakfast at 7 am. Hour ride to Waitomo. We had the opportunity to choose between two different caves to explore, a wet cave and a dry cave. Because I was freezing I chose the dry cave, St. Benedict's Cavern. The guides, Chris and Brad were extremely funny and really made the trip fun instead of just terrifying.
The trip began with abseiling (repelling) down a tiny, tiny hole. And then abseiling down another deceivingly narrow hole. And then walking across a very damp and slippery log with pretty much nothing to hold on to (because the ropes we could hold on to were at the level of our feet).
Brad and Chris gave up chocolate fish (cadbury, of course) and juice before the 13 second zip line. In the dark. Yes, I was the only one to yell as I zip-lined through the pitch black, damp cavern, and yes, I had a lot of trouble jumping off the platform in the dark.
At the end of the tour, my entire group (8 students, 2 guides) all clambered into a very small, (possibly a) sewer drain. We sat there for a while wondering what the hell was going on, and then Chris opened a door at the other end and we literally walked out the side of the hill. The door was labeled "hobbit" because it was circular.
Overall, caving was one of the coolest things I've ever done. I never really considered actually caving, so the whole trip was really awesome. I didn't get the pictures because they were really expensive (20 dollars each), so sorry to everyone who wanted to see me in a blue and orange jump suit clinging to a zip-line bar for dear life over a cavernous pit.
On the way home from Waitomo (jet lag starting to kick in), we stopped at a swing bridge that crossed a gorge where a hydropower plant used to be. I don't know why the power plant shut down, but I do know that the swing bridge was very scary. So I shuffled out about a third of the way, snapped some pics and scooted right off.
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