Jessica's 17th birthday

December 1st - photos coming soon
Jessica’s 17th Birthday

I cannot believe that on this day, my little girl turns 17 years old. How did this happen? Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday she was a baby……ah but alas she did turn seventeen today and is almost (1 more year) an adult.. She had a birthday wish and that was to the Blackwater River Rafting Abyss Tour in Waitomo. New Zealand. We have decided that on this trip the birthday person gets to choose where they will be for their birthday and an activity.
Jessica, knowing my fear of heights, chose this particular tour which included abseiling, a zip line, jumping off a cliff on an inner tube into the river, tubing the river, floating the river and climbing a waterfall. Well let’s just say I was a bit challenged by this tour, but was not going to sit out because of my fears.
We arrived in Waitomo, 1 ½ hours south of Auckland, in the early evening of November 30th. The drive was a rainy but a welcome change from the heat of the Lake Waikaremoana Tramp, and as we find out, lucky for us because now more water will be flowing through the caves in the morning.
We have a 9am departure for our tour and must sign waivers before embarking as this dangerous and people can get hurt. We then get to wear the lovely wetsuits, life jackets, boots and helmets they provide. Off we go to train for our abseil, on a hillside near the cave entry. Oh by the way, the way into the cave requires you to abseil in through a small hole that goes down a long way. Jessica, Tim & Jeff all make a go of it and I wait till no one save the guide is left above. No one gets to see me scared. I made it down no problem, although somehow my headlamp was not on so I could not see a thing. Maybe that was a good thing. We then walked a short distance through the cave and turned off our head lamps. Not knowing what was next, I was surprised when they hooked me up and sent me flying through the cave! Yes, I screamed. Safely back on the cave floor they served us hot cocoa and an oatmeal biscuit. All this I find out was to warm us before they asked us to jump into the river holding an inner tube to our bottom. Yes it was optional, you could walk around and down the river for a gentle entry, but I did jump and it was cold. Tim’s jump was the best and Jess also jumped after me as not to be the one who didn’t.
Once in the cold river we then followed it upstream to learn about the glow worms. Amazing! It looks like a starry night. They have a very short life cycle but accomplish a lot in their time. The small light they put off has a very faint green tone, and is no bigger than point of a pen. After our lesson was complete we float down river, abandon our inner tubes and because the water level rose overnight we are able float feet first down further to the waterfall. We arrive near the base not the top of the falls. We are given the choice as whether or not to climb the falls. All I see is a lot of water coming over and know there is no way I could do it. Jeff was the only one of us four who took the option. He said it was actually fairly easy and we all could have managed.
We returned to the outfitters where there was hot showers and tomato soup with bagels waiting for us. Not too bad for a 17th Birthday.
We then traveled on to Auckland, had a lovely Japanese (Jess’ choice) dinner and went to couch surf with Lorenzo, Lucy and family.
Karen