Waitomo, or why bother?

January 22nd is known in New Zealand by the Maori name of Wata Kaka Chika Day, loosely translated as "The day Moshe went chicken-shit and didn't bungy jump". In all honesty, I have a real fear of heights, which I've tackeled magnificently over the years by going limp and clinging to the rail even when I'm on the roof of my parents' building (4 stories). What can I do. Man of steel or man of squeal? You figure it out.

So let me recap the events of the last week or so - I may as well, since I'm not going anywhere.

In Waitomo, I went on a black-water adventure - TumuTumu Toobing (http://www.waitomo.co.nz/tumutumu.html), which was quite good - lots of fun with the glowworms in the cave, really nice walking in the water underground, and a hot instructor to boot.
The next day, I went for a bit of a walk in the area - some really good walking trails there. And finally, I got onthe Magic bus, on the way to Rotorua, and actually met some nice people.

I didn't stay long in Rotorua - I was anxious to get to Taupo. That was on the day of the 22nd (Monday). The drive was really nice - met some really nice people, and the driver stopped off in a couple of places I would never have gotten around to - Huka Falls, for example, and Rock N Ropes (http://www.rocknropes.co.nz/). The idea is to tie up ropes a long way up, and then have you scramble up and down the poles and try not to fall off and die. We didn't have much time, so we could choose only from two activities - the Giant Swing, and the Trapeze (which isn't on the site for some reasons, but you can get a view of it).

I chose to do the trapeze. The guys who did the Giant Swing climbed up a pole onto a big platform several meters up. From there you grabbed hold of a rope, and then you jump off and swing down. It's a pretty steep swing. The Trapeze is a little different. I climbed up a 12 meter pole, only to discover that at the top there's - nothing. Only the top of the pole, which is, oh, let's say 30 cm in diameter. I kid you not. The damn pole is swinging in the breeze, and I'm supposed to stand on it. Don't know how, but I managed. Ahead was the trapeze. Believe it or not, after standing on the pole, it was actually less scary to jump - which I did, and caught it. The last part was to let go of the trapeze, and have the instructor adjust the rope so you didn't fall too fast. He didn't. Imagine how much fun that was.

We left that place and proceeded to the bungy area in Taupo - some people got off to do the skydiving, I wanted to bungy. Unfortunately, I stupidly went ahead and looked at the platform. And then I looked down.
And down.
And down.
When I finally saw the rocks at the bottom, I decided it would maybe be a good idea to step away carefully. Needless to say, no jumping. I comforted myself in the fact that there's still Queenstown to go - where the winds are mighty, and the bungy is ever higher...

I'll continue my adventures in a separate post - this one's getting a bit long.