We had to get up very early again this morning as we had a three hour drive for our next adventure in Charleston on the West Coast.

The road out of Motueka was a leisurely stroll, curving along the side of first one river then another, with a mountain pass in between, in case we forgot we were in New Zealand! Charleston is a tiny town with a population of 67. However, at its height of gold-mining popularity in the second half of the 1800s the population was 31,000 people, which was larger than any other place in New Zealand at the time.

Our adventure was the Underworld Adventures’ Underworld Rafting Tour. We were suited up in wetsuits and booties and given a helmet with a headlamp and special webbed wetsuit gloves. From the building, a minibus took us to the car park for the Paparou National Park. We all piled onto a little train and were transported about 2 km into the forest towards one of the cave entrances. We had a small walk to a spot to collect our inner tubes. We then had a longer walk, across another suspension bridge and up 131 steps (Liam counted them) to the cave entrance. From there we had an amazing walk through a very large cave system. Our guides Pete and Rupert provided just enough interesting commentary as we walked through. There was some lovely speleothems (cave decorations) including flowstones, straws, stalagmites, stalactites and shawls/curtains. Some very impressive caves with multiple, beautiful formations.

The cave system was over a few different levels. The decorations were all in the upper, undisturbed levels, while at the bottom level we were on the river bed. While there were no decorations in this level due to the frequent flooding, there were glow-worms. The glow-worms need a food source – insects that come in with the wind or water. Apparently it is the larval form that lights up to attract food and they are in this form for 9-12 months. They use a type of web which drops vertically from the cave ceiling. We stopped to appreciate these with our lights turned off and it looked a bit like stars in a very inky night sky.

Once the river bed got wetter and deep enough, we hopped into our inner tubes. We formed a train with each person’s legs under another person’s arms, and floated gently, still in the cave. Again we turned our lights off and were able to gaze upon the most majestic display of glow-worms on the cave ceiling. The next step took us outside the cave and we continued down the stream for a while longer. Enjoying the beautiful view and trying to avoid being “river spanked” but failing miserably as our bottoms got caught on the rocks on the bottom of the shallow river. Luckily the rocks were rounded off and smooth! Finally there was a couple of small rapids to bounce down.

We all arrived back at the building, having reversed our train and mini-bus ride. Frozen, hungry and exhausted - a warm shower and getting back into warm clothes fixed the first issue and some take-away food in Greymouth on our way south fixed the second. Our accommodation for the night is a lovely cabin in Shining Star, Hokitika. There is a lovely beach with pretty stones we have walked along, but the water is too rough to swim (and it is way too cold, anyway). We are all thinking it would be nice to have more than one night here, but the kids can at least have a long awaited sleep in, with little planned for tomorrow and a short drive to our next stop – the glaciers. Now to fix that third issue – sleep!