The Cave of Thunder

We're back to exploring the South Island of New Zealand with this post.  

Take a look at the map.  About a third of the way up the map on the right side, you'll see Manapouri.  It was there that we left the ferry that had taken us down the length of the lake after our overnight cruise on Doubtful Sound. We boarded our tour bus and rode north to Te Anau where our next adventure awaited.  

There is a blue dotted line extending north up the lake from Te Anau. That marks the course to the glow worm cave that we would explore.  

I don't have many pictures of our spelunking.  Cameras were not allowed in the cave.  I took a few before we entered and to tell the truth, I would have found it difficult to keep up with the group and take photos besides.  Then, there was the dripping water from high above us, and spray from the rapids and waterfalls next to us.  That wouldn't have been good for the camera. 

I found this to be a physically challenging experience.  Yes, we had to climb quite a few stairs, but the flights of steps were not long and there were handrails on both sides. That wasn't the issue.  

The issue for me was the sound.  I'll tell you about that in a minute. 

This sign greeted us as we left the boat. 

This next picture shows you a cut-away map of the section of cave we climbed through. We entered from the lower right side. 

This is a section of forest we hiked through on our way to the entrance. 

The trail suddenly drops between the rocks and becomes very narrow. 

My excitement begins to mount.  About here I began to feel the cold air and underground smell that was being blown out of the cave mouth. 

I love caves so the air and smell and wind felt welcoming to me. Some of you reading this I know feel very differently. 

There, just to the right of the man in front, is the darkness.  

I have now been in several glow worm caves. They generally have water flowing through them, but this one impressed me as soon as we were inside with the thunder of some unseen falls further in.  

And it's true that I have recently started wearing hearing aids.  I wondered right away if I should reach up and turn my 'bionics' down a few notches.  However, I soon realized that there was something different about the quality of sound in this cave and turning my aids down wasn't going to change that.  

The walkway we were on twisted and turned. There were two places where we had to bend over, and I mean to just over my waist height, to fit under the low ceiling.  The river was to our right and close enough that occasional splashed droplets could be felt.   

As the cut-away map shows, we steadily climbed and as we did the thunder increased.  I understood that we were in a narrow passageway through solid rock and the pressure waves of the crashing water from a waterfall up ahead had become more than just sound that registered in our ears.  

I could feel it.  It was like being very lightly pummeled all over.  I actually found it tiring.  If you've ever stood in front of giant speakers (when you were young) at a concert and felt the vibrations from them, you'll have an idea of what I mean.   

Finally, we stood before the waterfall itself and the full roar almost overloaded my senses.  

We climbed up a stairway next to the waterfall and proceeded beyond it to a large chamber where we boarded a boat for the ride across the flooded chamber and back again.  Here, the thunder was a little less.  

The low-level lights that had illuminated our walk thus far were turned off and absolute, can't-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-face, blackness surrounded us. There, above us, were the glowworms. It felt good to sit down for a bit and admire them, and especially good to be free of the full volume of the falls.  

Our boat ride across and back was brief.  Before long, we were disembarking and starting to make our way down past the falls again, along the rapids now surging on our left side, and out of the cave.  

The silence outside seemed almost surreal after the pounding we had taken inside.

I'm glad that Jeanne and I had this adventure, despite the physicality.  Had I been 40 instead of 70, I might have found it much less intense.  But what an experience.  Talk about feeling raw, concentrated power. I won't soon forget it. 

We were very glad to get back to our hotel room that afternoon and put our feet up.  And bask in the quiet.  

My next post will show and tell you about the surprise we got the next day as we made our way toward Queenstown.    -djf