When dad went to pay for his and Dax’s tubing, I didn’t know that he was buying the 100-meter abseil for me and mom. It was pretty expensive compared to Dad and Dax’s trip. In fact, it was double. I really didn’t want to use that kind of money, but after a lot of talking, Dad convinced me to do it. So we left Taupo, and drove about an hour and half to the Waitomo Caves. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to bring our cameras. But, the other visitor, Mike, didn’t see the sign, and because his camera was a small digital one, he brought it. He took some pictures of us in our overalls, harnesses, and helmets before we got to the abseil platform and he’s going to e-mail us them when he gets back to the US. So this post will probably have pictures in the next few weeks. The name of the trip we were doing was “Lost World.”It was amazing, standing on a metal platform 100 meters (330 feet) up. First the guide, Scott, connected me to a rope and told me to sit on a bar about three feet off the platform while he set everyone else up. So I was sitting on a small round bar suspended hundreds of feet in the air for about 20 minutes. It was such a cool sight dangling with a body harness around me. Once we made the tough trip down the abseil, you could see the weirdest things, like an eel that lives in rivers and at some time in its life might swim to the ocean. When it reaches the ocean, it decides if it wants to be male or female. If the food source is good enough, they might live in the river for their whole life. After all that, into the cave we went. It really was a lost world. It was so far down and had some of the weirdest kinds of rocks that I’ve ever seen. It also had a centipede like thing that has only ever been found in that cave. Oh, but the glow worms! Deep in the cave you can see these worm-like larvae on the ceiling. The worms don’t actually glow, but their waste, which remains attached to them, does. The average 60-watt light bulb is about 95% heat and 5% light, but the glow worm poo is about 98% light. After we saw the glow worms, we trekked back through the cave to a ladder. Not just any ladder, a 90-foot ladder. Climbing it was about the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Finally I saw the light of our guide’s helmet and made my way up to him. After me came Mom, and then Mike came last. All in all I think it was worth the money we had to pay. Look on Sixintheworld.com next week for McKane’s weekly post.
We couldn’t take a camera in the cave. This is a brochure if you look very closely you can see someone abseiling.
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