We’d both visited Waitomo before, but this time it was different. This time, we were visiting as adults – without our parents!

It was oddly exciting. Here we were in this natural playground, this magical landscape of caves and glowworms, and we could do whatever we wanted.

There was no one to tell me I couldn’t go black water rafting because my little sister was too young, and it wouldn’t be fair if I got to go black water rafting and she didn’t, would it? There was also no one to pay for me to go black water rafting. (Oh, the dilemma of adulthood!) Besides, it was winter. We weren’t too keen on riding a rubber ring down a subterranean river in winter.

Instead, we decided to do something even more expensive: a dry caving tour involving rock Climbing and an Underground Flying Fox. Because an underground flying fox sounded awesome.

The tour was called ‘Lost World through the Window’ and, as soon as we descended into the cave, it was easy to see why. It was like passing through a faerie portal, entering a whole other world beneath the forest floor. A great hush came upon us; slowly our ears filled with the echoes of rushing water.

The cavern was so large that the bottom, far below us, was lost in mist. Looking back towards the silhouetted entrance, it seemed a giant maw with ragged stalactites for teeth. Shards of sunlight fell into it like rain, quickly swallowed. I could have inhaled the sight all day.

The flying fox came next. It was fun, but it would probably have been more fun if I had been scared. As a rock climber, I’m rather blasé about dangling from ropes. I hadn’t been climbing in ages, though, and this tour reminded me how much I love it. I mean there was no serious climbing involved – more scrambling, arse-sliding and balancing along ledges with only a couple of ‘cowtail’ ropes preventing a fall into the darkness – but it was enough.

I imagine some people would have freaked out at the thought of the abyss below them. I nearly slipped into it once, but, of course, that’s what the ropes are for.

At one point, we passed a large, dead spider. And then another large, not-so-dead spider. Tunnelweb spiders – not to be confused with the deadly funnel-web spiders of Australia – apparently take a ‘dead man’s shoes’ approach to real estate.

(One feels New Zealand’s first home buyers could stand to learn from this example.)

“They don’t like building their own webs,” our guide told us. “They prefer to wait around until some other spider’s finished building their web – and then kill them. There’re lots in this part of the cave.”

The tour finished with an ascent up a series of long, metal ladders, which were freezing on the fingers. I wished the journey could have lasted longer – I was just getting into it!

I burst into the daylight feeling utterly alive. I’m glad we were able to do something adventurous and out of the ordinary this winter.

Filed under: Nature, North Island, Tourist Experiences Tagged: black water rafting, caving, flying fox, Lost World, Lost World through the Window, New Zealand, rock climbing, tunnelweb spiders, Waitomo, Waitomo Caves