Cold and Wet

Today it was time for our first dose of adrenaline in the South Island. Many people say a "must-do" in New Zealand is seeing the glowworm caves. We decided to make a day of it by doing the zipline, black water rafting and glowworm cave combo in Greymouth.

We rocked up bright and early at a dodgey old shed where we were apparently supposed meeting our guides. At first we weren't sure if we were at the right place. Then we walked in the door to be greeted by two men in wetsuits. Yep, this was definitely the right place!

After signing our lives away in the standard "it's not our fault if you hurt yourself" form, we got wetsuited up.

Damn, boy!

Too bad if you don't like tight clothing...

Once everyone was feeling sufficiently uncomfortable and self-conscious in their new outfits, we jumped on a rickety old bus for the 40 minute drive to the creek. Along the way our driver explained how everything was going to work and all the do's and don't's. It was pretty simple stuff really - grab a tube, sit in it, float down the creek, avoid rocks and cliff faces.

The creek is located at the bottom of a large valley. Instead of going the long, boring way around to get into the valley, we took the short, fun way via a zipline.

We were first in line so when we got to the bottom of the valley we had to wait a while for the rest of the group to have their turn. Plenty of time to take some selfies of our awesome outfits. So out came my dodgey waterproof camera with its iPhone-quality photos. Not even photoshop could save these photos but surely anything is better than nothing, right?

Sexy helmets!

Wetsuit selfies!

Once we all had our feet on solid ground again, we headed for the creek. One by one we got in the water, each person reacting differently to the temperature but everyone agreeing that 10 degrees Celsius is not a nice temperature to swim in, even in thermals and a thick wetsuit. And no, it didn't get any warmer.

From this point on, we basically had free reign to float down the creek as fast or slowly as we liked. If you wanted to go slowly there weren't many options. Despite the fact that the creek was only half a metre deep at most, it was flowing very fast making it rather difficult to not run into things along the way.

Chris and I were clearly very skilled at navigating the sharp turns and not running into walls because we kept straying much too far from the group and had to constantly stand up in the middle of the creek to wait for everyone to catch up. That being said, I did hurt myself multiple times by sinking too far into the centre of my tube and colliding with large boulders in the creek bed. 

Eventually, we made it to the glowworm cave. We all jumped out of the creek and headed up the bank towards the cave. At the entrance, our guides had built a mudslide. Everyone to took their turn sliding down on a plastic toboggan into the ice cold pool below.

At this point we were all freezing and were starting to lose feeling in our fingers and toes. But the adventure wasn't over yet. Together we created a massive chain with our tubes and floated into the narrow and winding cave. It wasn't until we were inside that I understood why we had to join together. About 5 metres in, we experienced a whole new level of dark. No matter how hard we tried, it is impossible to see a thing.

I was going to post a Go Pro video, but I think this image sums it up.

Slowly but surely we made our way through the cave using the walls as a guide until we reached the glowworms. Unlucky for us, the rain we'd had all day had washed away many of the glowworms. It was still a pretty sight but very difficult to enjoy when you're as cold as we were. Just when I thought I could take it no more, our guide whipped out a giant thermos filled with piping hot chocolate and with it, Mars Bars to snack on.

Feeling somewhat warmer we made our way out of the cave, ready to make the bus journey home. Our guide had other ideas. Further down the bank, below the first pool with the mudslide was another much deeper pool, with a nice jumping spot a few metres above it. In the interest of our safety, he tested the water first to make sure there was nothing dangerous under the surface. Then it was our turn. My fear of heights sent alarm bells ringing in my head, but Chris managed to convince me to make the jump (not so gracefully, might I add!).

When we got back to the shed, we took all our wetgear off before jumping into a lovely hot spa (wearing swimmers of course). There we were served beer and wine with blueberry muffins fresh from the oven to warm our tummies. (Yes, I thought this was a strange combination too - but hey, I'm not going to complain!)

Somehow we eventually gathered our courage to brave the cold air outside the spa and we left the shed ready for another road trip - this time, Fox Glacier.

xx Kate-Lyn