On last check in, I was on a bus heading for the Hamilton area. After two weeks, I’m on another bus en route to my next destination, which is sure to have more civilization than my previous locale.
My Workaway was in Ngaruawahia (good luck with pronunciation). My hosts, Amanda and Carl were very accommodating and fun to chat with. Amanda works in the health industry running drug and procedural trials and Carl just started shift work on the police force. They have two hellion boys, Braithan (5) and Harrison (6). They were on holiday in between school semesters and, let’s just say, incredibly energetic. Amanda described them as absolutely feral at the moment. I’ll agree.
It was more weeding and yard work for me, preparing their garden beds for the spring plant. A few six to eight hour days pulling some damn rooty green shit. Talk about feral.
The main downside to the arrangement was again being so rural. I was lucky enough to be allowed use of a car to make two excursions happen.
The first was driving out to Matamata, about an hour and a half away, to check out the Hobbiton movie set. And it was pretty much as amazing as you’d think it would be. Pristine. Like you were stepping into one of the scenes. The lushness, creativity and attention to detail – I mean, there was smoke coming out of the chimneys – was incredible. Even the amber ale I had at the Green Dragon was tasty.
If I had a gripe, it would be that the tour was too short. I was so busy taking pictures and soaking it in that I don’t think I heard a single thing the tour guide said. I honestly considered doing another one immediately after finishing. Regardless, it was a special sight and I’m glad I made it there. Even if you’re not a fan of the Lord of the Rings or Hobbit films, you would’ve appreciated this pocket of small person heaven.
A few days later, I was heading out on another journey to the Waitomo Caves. I got a deal on a 5 hour adventure that had a little bit of everything. Legitimately. It was called The Black Abyss if that tells you anything. The website said they prohibited camera equipment, but I saw some YouTube reviews that had footage so I was hopeful.
I was immediately denied.
Maybe GoPro footage wouldn’t have turned out that well anyway since it was so dark in there…being a cave and all. The guides took a camera with them and you have the option to buy photos at the end too. A compete racket -$20 for 1, $35 for all. And all the photos you see when you’re checking in are professionally done so it’s deceiving. But those are included in your package if your purchase all, so I got the group to pool together and share the download link so it was reasonable for everyone.
*Unnecessary disclaimer: the good cave pics are promotional and taken by a random professional.
I would say that the under-Earth excursion made up for any media shortcomings though. We first started with a 110ft abseil entering the cave. I’ve never done that before and thankfully the cave was dark so you couldn’t see much when looking down. Then we did a little bumbling around before doing a pitch black zip line. Mildly terrifying. Next we had a bit of hot chocolate before jumping off a ledge in our tubes into the river.
Cold as shit. 11*C water. We were in wetsuits, but still it was a bit of a shock to the system. We did some floating and cave exploration, scoping out the stalactites and other rock formations.
Then we got to a dead end, arranged ourselves into an interconnected line, turned off our headlamps and enjoyed the view of about a million glowworms creating an underground night sky. Our guide sang some ambient and highly reverborous tune that set a pretty epic vibe. Another surreal experience.
Upon the conclusion of that sweet moment, we ditched our tubes and stumbled over the drunken pass – appropriately named for the uneven surface you walk over.
No one kept their balance.
Then there was a small water slide, a pee break (during which I learned how shockingly difficult it is to…partially exit…a wetsuit), and a jump off a waterfall.
Form.
We did a bit more wandering and at times crawling through the cave before making our way toward the exit. The last part of the adventure was free climbing up a 3 meter and 2 meter waterfall. I’m accident prone when it comes to these things so I wasn’t feeling very confident. Especially after the guy in front of me almost ate shit. All safe and sound though. I impressed myself.
I will say that seeing sun light was a decent relief. There was a moment somewhat early on in the cave when I had a brief panic about being attacked by a random subterranean creature. There’s just no way to escape anything down there. Irrational, I suppose.
So all in all, some pretty worthwhile outings over the past two weeks. I do feel I should’ve done more with my time but it’s all a learning process. Going forward, I’ll try to find more Workaways closer to civilization.
Stoked for everything upcoming though.