Awesome Abseiling

Hey Guys,
I've just seen that Jeremy's updated the blog again...he's put my sms message onto the thing. It was a message for jeremy but it's still true what I wrote.
I really loved that caving trip, it was an awesome underground experience and as it was the big 'action' tour I was the only girl ('the chick' again) and the youngest one as well.
The other guys were mostly from UK but there were some Aussies and an Irishman too.
I might just describe what we did even though Jeremy helpful as always put that brochure kind of thing in one of the last post.
Well we got introduced to the trip and what was gonna happen first and tried to figure out what we'd do in emergencies as there were two guys that couldn't swim. I'm not joking but so we had to promise them to keep an eye on them;)
We then got all the equipment staff for the abseiling and our 'outfits'....wetsuits, gumboots (or 'wellingtons' as they're called here - don't ask why) and safety helmets with lights because those caves are pretty tough in some places.
Ref: Wellingtons were rubberised boots popularised by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington and were fashionable among the British aristocracy in the early 19th century; ... look up your history books

it was the first abseiling (I KNOW this is a german word but it's really called like that!!) I ever did and I was glad we had some training first, abseiling down a steep hill. but honestly, it was nothing compared to the real thing: abseiling 37 metres deep into a vertical cave entrance, mainliy a big hole which i wouldn't have liked to meet without the abseiling gear.
maybe i shouldn't have had my daily chocolate muffin for breakfast as i got stuck in the abseiling part which got quite narrow. but finally I arrived at the end and got freed by one of our two guides. I was pretty scared before I did it so I couldn't really enjoy the first part...maybe I should do it again some time?
And the Irishman took the piss out of me before I went down: "hey cora, did you check your helmet lights?" "em...no....does it work" "Aaah, let's see....I don't think so". Of course I believed him....typically dumb....started panicking....haha funny.

But then he seemed to have a bad conscience and behaved really gentleman-like for the rest of the tour. I was the shortest one so in some parts I had to swim while the others could walk and several times the guys had to save me from drifting away. but it was definitively great fun!!
After the abseil we had our first break with some nice hot coffee and some kind of giant muesli bars. Our guide told us he had made them himself so some people decided to have a closer look before we ate them. but everybody seemed to survive.
our little morning tea was followed by the jump two metres down into the underground river. I was really proud of me that I jumped first - but honestly, if i had had some more time to think about what might be down there I would have been too scared.
then we were floating down the river in our tubes and it was some kind of magic if you just didn't listen to the aussies who tried to "kill the moment" very hard.
the glowworms were awesome as we switched off all the lights and finally we were standing in a cathedral-like cave with little bright green lights all over the wall! our guide introduced us to the life of the glowworms....could make you really jealous: when they are born they first have a gigantic feed which keeps them going for their whole life, they spend their teenage years sleeping in a cocoon and when they are finally grown up they have sex for the rest of their lives. so next time you'd better ask to become a glowworm.

The last part of the caving your was probably the toughest. We were climbing up some hidden waterfalls to get the 50 metres up again. I thought I could never do it because you had to climb nearly vertically and you couldn't see a thing as the waterfalls were rushing down in front of you. But our guides advised us were to put our feet and hands and everyone decided to trust them so we all reached the normal world safely!

After that trip, we could warm up with having a hot shower and got fed with some soup and bagels. in the black water cafe you could mainly see "pre caving" and "post caving" faces....some looked pretty worried but all the ones who had done it had that giant grin on their face....definitely the highlight of my tour!

In the afternoon we arrived in Taupo - that's were I am now, staying at Tiki Lodge again. The internet cafe is about to close so I better hurry up. But I'm fine and a bit sad that the tour is nearly over. Time went incredibly fast and although I'm looking forward to see Wellington again, including my awesome host family and it's gonna be pretty neat to eat at regular times, this is really something I'm gonna remember long after I've left.

Lots of love
cora