We woke up early again to get on the road to be at the caving office by 8:30am. It was in a small town named Charleston. There was only three of us going on the underground rafting tour so it was a very personalized experience. There were a few other people with us on the van and then the little rainforest train (which takes us close to the cave entrance) but they were just going to see the gloworms.
After riding the train, we got off and walked a short path over to an open area of the forest where we got dressed up In all of our wetsuit gear. Then we were off to the cave, stopping once to grab our inner tubes. It was about 130 steps up to the cave entrance. Once up, we had a short discussion about the cave system (it was only discovered in the sixties) and then proceeded down into the cave. There were various stops to see stalactites and stalagmites one the way down. We even got a chance to drink some fresh cave water...
Once all the way down, we reached the water. Our guide, Louise, linked us all together on our inner tubes and floating us backwards down the river. All of the torch lights were turned out and we stared up in the pitch blackness to see all of the gloworms. It was a truly amazing sight to see...
As we flowed out near the sunlight, we got out for a minute for a few pictures, then got back in the tubes and flowed down the outside river, over a few small rapids and down to where we started. Once back to the start, we changed, got back on the train and were headed back to the office. What an awesome experience!
We got back in the car and drove to Nelson, our next stop for the next two days. Along the way, we stopped to see a seal colony and then for an iced coffee in the small town of westport.
Dinner was at a nice restaurant in our hotel, the orangerie.
Next up: Abel Tasman park kayaking and my microlite flight...
-- Post From My iPad
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