Waitomo is just south of Hamilton and is famous for its caves, glow worms and limestone outcrops. We stayed at El Tiro, a fantastic farm-stay property owned by Rachel and Angus.
Their little cabins are perched on the hill with the most incredible view of the Northlands and come with a private bathroom, TV, fridge and everything supplied for breakfast. They even have their own glow-worm grotto, which is just metres from the cabins.
Angus is also one of the managers of ‘The Legendary Black Water Rafting Co.’ and we were signed up to do the “Black Abyss” trip at 2.30pm. It was probably a good thing that we didn’t really know what was involved, because Sam didn’t have the chance to bottle out!
We were kitted out in wetsuits, shorts, harness, hard-hat and wellies and driven up to the Ruakuri Cave. After a quick abseiling lesson (for me and the girls) we abseiled down into the cave – which was very cool and over too soon. 
Then they clipped you onto a Flying Fox thingy and you zipped down to a ledge above the river on the cave floor (in the dark).
We then had to jump off the ledge into the river, landing with your bum wedged into the inner tubes. This caused complete submersion and the cold water filled our wetsuits and boots! From that moment on, keeping warm was the main issue while we floated along watching the glow-worms, walked through the caves in the river, climbed up waterfalls and eventually emerged on the outside 3 hours later.
These photos are courtesy of BWR, since we couldn't take our our own cameras.
Group shot (trying to keep teeth from chattering). As you can see, Andy was the only chap as usual!
Back at the centre you get hot showers, soup and a bagel (which is all you can think about while you are chest-deep in cold water, believe me!).
Andy thought it was tame, but for someone like me - who has never abseiled, or climbed, or gone caving – it was quite an achievement.
