Chill ... it's just black water rafting

Black water rafting had never been on my list of things to do; I have often stuck myself in a tyre tube and floated down the river when I go camping. How hard can black water rafting be?

When it was suggested by another journalist that I give The Legendary Black Water Rafting Company a call and go along, I thought why not? Let's see what the fuss is all about. As I seem to with most of my adventures for this column, I drove along that morning relatively calm. I arrived, did my wiggle test for my first caving adventure (the column back in June) and didn't think too much about it. After the caving experience I began to mentally prepare myself for black water rafting. I suddenly realised I had no idea what I gotten myself into.

The briefing went by quickly, introductions were made, and off we went to get the gear on. There is nothing quite like the accomplishment of wriggling your body, togs, and polar fleece under-layers into a rather tight wetsuit complete with wetsuit booties. I decided it was probably not an occasion to look in the mirror. I appreciated those numerous layers a little later. In the van we hopped with tyre tubes, helmets, and harnesses.

First step was the abseil 35m into the cave. Although I have done many abseils in my life, this was one of the best as I went from above land, wriggled between the limestone, and found myself underground. Next was the flying fox in the dark, complete with sound effects in the dark cave made by the instructors as we came to the end of the cable. The sound of a tyre tube being slammed on to a rock in a dark cave is quite frightening when you have no idea it's about to happen, but the amusement factor as I sat in the dark listening to the participants' after me squeal as they too came to the end of the ride made up for my own fright.

Assigned a tyre tube, it was time to jump in. Held by shaking hands, the tyre tube came with me as I leapt. There was a route for those who didn't want to jump but my competitive spirit was kicking in so I jumped.

Once the group had all made it into the very chilly water, we began what I likened to school aerobics when I was a child. I think what we were attempting to do was dance, but in large wetsuits, in a cave, in cold water, with a tyre tube ... put it this way, I'm glad no one was filming that.

However, I have not laughed at myself like that in a long time, so with smiles on our faces we made our way up the cave river.

There is something incredibly peaceful and a little overwhelming about being in something so magnificent, created by nature. I was in total awe.

Once we'd reached one side of the cave, we hopped on our tubes, held each other's legs, turned off the lights, and began floating (and being pulled by the guides) down the river.

Glow-worms shone like tiny stars, the silence was incredible.

But the adventure was only half way through. We reached a point in the river where it became shallow so off went the tyre tubes; it was time to start walking. The sense of accomplishment I felt for tackling the wetsuit stage was put to shame by my victorious success of walking through a cave river, at the front, without falling over ... much. I even managed to smile for the camera on the slide down the waterfall.

This was topped off by a detour through some of the caves I had seen earlier, then climbing up a waterfall.

The climb up the waterfall was somewhat surprising. It was easier than I anticipated (I had been imagining myself lose the ability to balance and fall to the depths of the cave) but as we popped up, once again back above ground, it was dark.

The sun had set and the bush has settled in for the night. Wow, I thought, what an incredible place we live in! I would certainly recommend this adventure for anyone who has a reasonable level of fitness, loves water, and wants a challenge not too far from home.

For more information visit www.waitomo.com/caving-adventure.htw