down in a hole

there is no such thing as a dry cave.

after moving in this morning, i got together with my friend alista fow from work to go caving. he's been going for years to caves around the waitomo area (down where the black water rafting stuff is) and has told me a lot about it, so i convinced him to take me (not that it involved a lot of arm twisting).

wearing warm clothes that we didn't mind getting dirty and armed with flashlights, we set off into what is known as 'the reserve cave' down in waitomo (so named because it's on a nature reserve). once you're inside and have a look around, the first thing you notice is the mud. for some stupid reason, i wasn't expecting this. the other caves i've done recently had a river flowing through them, so mud wasn't an issue and the 'dry cave' mom carrie and i did had walkways all through it. but when you go into a cave au naturale, your secondary concern is not to slip and bust your ass (your primary concern, or at least mine, is to avoid smacking your head on the ceiling). alista led the way in. as i was taking a picture, the next thing i heard was lots of splashing. upon inspection, we had to go through a section about 20 yards long of ankle deep mud, with lots of water. there was no getting around it and no keeping your shoes dry.

the cave itself is pretty cool. nearly all of it is a single extended cavern, so you can't really get lost and the ceiling is very high. there is one squeeze through what is known as the "dragon's teeth". stalactites and stalagmites above and below the hole make it look like a large mouth you crawl through. it's really okay except for a few inconveniently placed rocks that manage to smack you in the nads (alista told me of another cave that has a squeeze called "the organ grinder" for the same reason -- cavers are nothing if not clever). beyond the squeeze is a large room that's the end of the cave. we sat around in the dark for a bit, having a drink and a snickers. i got to reflect on what i was doing and where i was doing it and decided that it was awesome. we got out with no difficulties after having spent about 2.5 hours underground.

going into the cave is free and all you really need to do is check in at a station to let them know where you'll be and when you expect to be out so that if something happens to you, someone will know where to go looking. that's really your only safety net, along with what you bring with you (flashlights, extra batteries, etc.). this is another example of something that i can't imagine would be this easy to do back in the states, where the government usually has to protect us from ourselves. i've never done any caving like this before (without a tour group, basically) but i loved it and want to go again.