Day 122 – Tubing in Vang Vieng.

We went to bed quite early last night because of that crazy storm so getting up to go on a small trek and some tubing wasn’t that hard. We got picked up just before 9am and thought we were going to be in a small group but it ended up just being the pair of us and a guide. We got driven out to see four different caves. The first cave was called Elephant cave because part of the rock formation looks like an elephant, I’m not sure whether it is natural or if someone has made it like that, but either way it was pretty cool!

We then went and explored through two more caves, I can’t remember what they were called but it was really cool! The last cave we sat on a tube and pulled on a rope the whole way through. It was so dark but there is something exciting and mysterious about being the only three people in a cave. We were then given lunch which consisted of a chicken skewer thing and rice, delicious!

We were then driven back to the start of the tubing river called the Nam Song. Like I said yesterday, this place is famous because of the tubing. So there used to be 26 bars, or something like that? Now there are only 4. It used to have zip lines, slides and other stupidly dangerous things and after, I think, 22 tourists died in 2011 the Laos Government thought they should do something about it. They turned up and ripped it all out in 2012 meaning most people now miss this place out. It is currently dry season meaning the river doesn’t have as much water in it as it normally would, so I was quite glad we had a guide because by the end we couldn’t be bothered to try and swim our way down the river in the tube, so instead we held onto his kayak and made him do all the work. I’m not quite sure how far but we covered quite a lot of ground, maybe 8km? Who knows, but it was far! We didn’t go in any of the so called bars, we didn’t really see any one else apart from some people kayaking but overall I really enjoyed my day. It was really relaxing to float down a river chilling in the sunshine!

Once again the evening brought us a crazy storm so we didn’t really do a lot!

Day 32 – Hot Water Beach to Waitomo.

***WARNING! THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG ONE!***

After a restless night, creaky beds and loud music, the alarm went off at 6.45am… EARLY. The bus wasn’t leaving until 7.30 but she wants everyone ready and on the bus for 7.15 to allow extra time if need be. We left on time with the right number of people, which is pretty impressive. We stopped in Paeroa on the way for another supermarket and toilet break, I think this will happen near enough everyday. I grabbed some Hot Cross Buns for lunch that were highly disappointing but smell amazing! We also discovered that Pancake Day isn’t until the 4^th March meaning I won’t be with the two girls from London who I have been sharing a room with but lucky for them they will be in LA and can enjoy the wonders of IHOP.

We went on a short bush walk in Karangahake called the Windows Walk. From the walk we got to see the river gorge, mining tunnels, tramway track and underground pumphouse. It was pretty cool and a nice way to stretch your legs after being on a bus.

How these Kiwi buses work is clipboards get handed around on the bus and you can book on activities and sort out your accommodation. These then get handed back to the driver who rings through and sorts it all out for you. They guarantee your first night accommodation but the rest is up to you. We also get given discounts and things because of who we are with. The main thing to do in Waitomo is the Black Water Rafting so when the boards came around yesterday I was very interested in signing up. There were 2 main options and these were a 3-hour or 5-hour trek. Obviously they varied in price but to me the 5 hour sounded way more fun and this is exactly the kind of thing I am into!

We arrived in Waitomo just after 2 and I was booked on for the 2.45 trek. They came and picked us up from our lodge called Kiwi Paka. We were put into black wetsuits and given white wellington boots that made you look super sexy! There were 5 people in my group plus 2 instructors so we managed to do the whole course quicker meaning we got extra adventure!

We started our journey by practising how to use our ropes on the small abseils outside before we proceeded to the real stuff. The abseil into the cave was 37m and about 7m in we got to a bit called ‘The Throat’ which was just about big enough to squeeze through and once on the other side you were in total darkness. 

When everyone was on the bottom we trekked through some of the cave until we were once again in a small area to squeeze through where we were then attached to another bit of rope and told just to hang, he then let us go and it was a zip wire down to a ledge right near the water. I didn’t scream, so I did well! We were then given some hot chocolate and what they called an Outdoor Cake… it was just a flapjack but exactly what we needed as it was quite cold down there.

One by one we jumped into the water which was about 6m high onto our rubber rings, we then floated through the cave. We were shown a stalagmite that had formed and really looked like Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. To make our way back we interlinked our feet and rubber rings to create a chain and were then pulled through the cave so we had a perfect view to look up at the Glowworms.

We swam through some more of the cave until we reached another fountain. It had about a 10m drop so they made us jump off it of course! It was pretty cool but the water was quite cold! The best thing about it is the water is fresh water, so it’s not salty making it easier to see when you come back up. We then swam through some more and because we had taken less time than normal they said we got have some extra adventure!

We climbed up through some dry rocks, that was quite hard and my upper body strength was tested! When we got to the top we had to crawl through to the other side in what I can only describe as a mud bath and then had to climb down some stairs but I slipped but managed to save myself so all was ok! I think that might be why my arms now ache a little but ah well. We were back to where we started and near the end of our trek, we had time for another quick stop for some group photos, hot orange juice and chocolate.

We then made our way to climb 2 fountains, which was quite challenging and then were told to slowly make our way out until we could see the light! The whole thing was incredible and lasted around 3 and a half hours, totally worth doing!

After all of that I cooked some dinner and crashed out, I was absolutely exhausted.