Caving

After a summer of playing tourists in our own town, I think we have now ticked off everything there is to do. Therefore, these last holidays, we ventured a little further afield.

And so it was that we found ourselves in a cloud of dust on a loose metal road in the depths of the boondocks with no idea if we were heading in the right direction.

Destination Waipu Caves. But were we actually pointed towards there? I had no idea. I put my faith in the lady at the service station back in the civilization of State Highway and continued, despite the kids’ protests that we were lost. We had fuel, we had water and food and we had good sounds. All was well.

Finally we reached some signage and, hallelujah, we were on track. We turned into a paddock with several campervans and tourists roaming about and donned our caving shoes and torches.

We found the cave opening and were soon engulfed within its murky depths. Everyone fell silent, gaping in awe at its hollow beauty. Unlike the directions, I’d researched the caves and their level of ease or danger. The rocks could get quite slippery and you will emerge rather wet and muddy, was one tourist’s feedback, so wear your togs. Being autumn, we hadn’t but I had come prepared with towels and wasn’t expecting the kids to be game enough to venture too far in anyway.

As we stood there adjusting to the dim, a tourist stepped into a water-filled hole and screamed as she lost her footing. Its echo rang all around us, turning heads in unison. However, the kids were surprisingly undeterred and charged ahead across the slippery stepping stones to the other side. Further and further we walked into its depths, twisting and turning around large boulders and stepping over strategically-placed stones leading across streams, every now and then switching off our torches to gaze at the glow worms twinkling above.

We were like the Famous Five, minus Timmy the dog, on our adventure that day, albeit with no baddies in sight.

Strong torches are a must for it is DARK! Headlamps would be better for hands-free. There is a fair amount of scrambling involved and, yes you do get a tad muddy. Shoes stay relatively dry if one doesn’t slip off the stepping stones or fall into a hole. We emerged back into the light and further explored the beautiful scenic bush before hopping in the car and heading back into the cloud of dust.

Knowing you are heading in the right direction makes a trip seem way quicker.