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Marty's Adventures
Started off the day with intentions of going to a place called Lake Taupo. I headed north and found myself driving for a few hours through green farmland.....I drove through parts of the Tongiriro National Park also known as the desert road! There were some impressive mountains and volcanos that just are out in the middle of the tumble weeds?! I got to Turangi by noon....it is on the south end of Lake Taupo....I googled how far Waitomo was and decided to go for it! It was still early in the day....I found a mountain top look out for a lunch break.....I always seem to find these great views! I arrived in Waitomo and went to the office of the company I had booked a nighttime tour for the next night and asked if I could do it tonight.....they said yes and all was set. I went across the highway to the caravan park and got settled in. At 730pm.... I met Richmond at the office and we headed out. A little background.....I originally wanted to book a tour with another company....it was a 100 meter abseil into the cave....they would not take me solo....had to be a minimum of two....so I looked for something else....I came upon a night time abseil into a canyon 150 feet down and half the price....so this is what I was about to do! I got all suited up in my blue coveralls....white gum boots....helmet and harness....into woods we went....well we went into what appeared to be a bunch of trees in the middle of a farmers field! We were attached to safety lines right from the time we entered the trees till we came out later....Richmond took me to the canyon and hooked me all up.....gave me some instructions and the fear set in....I was sooooooo scared!!! He was great....he talked me through it....just had to take that leap so to speak! We did a practice run while there was still light at the top of the canyon. Down we went.....I have to admit I was still trembling a bit inside but it was very cool and I was happy to have my feet on the ground.....he showed me what the glow worms looked like....and told me all about growing up in the area.....we climbed back up out of the canyon and waited for dark.....once it was dark we headed down again.....I was scared again but worked through it.....we got about halfway down and I felt like I was in another galaxy.....like I was in night sky with the stars! The walls were about a meter away on either side of me.....it was an amazing scene.....we just hung out there for a while then finished the decent.....wow! When we climbed up we stopped on one of the platforms and turned our head lamps off.....there were way more glow worms in this end of the cave!!! It was insane!! Headed back to the campa and sat under the real night sky for a few minutes then into the campa.....tomorrow am off to Rotorua where I will go to a Moari Cultural Evening called a Hangi.
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