Day 100: South of Hobart- Trees, Timber, Hot Spring, and Caves

Monday 14th March

Huon River, township, valley, forest

Skytrack amongst the trees

Tallest flowering tree in the world, Eukalyptus Red Gum

Cabbage leafed pine

Selective timber felling

Modern problems with Tasmanian timber trade

Hot springs for lunch, wee walk then swim

Hastings Caves, old Precambrian dolerite (like limestone with magnesium in it) no fossils. Shallow, 20m, under rainforest, grows and changes quickly, few floods, tiny river

100th night on the road!

Distance:

Total Distance:

Today began with a new tour company. However, unlike my other tours we wouldn't, initially be going from one place to another. Instead my first two days will be centred around Hobart. Today we were off to the far south. Once it was all virgin forest. Much of this was cut down and replaced with orchards, making Tazmania the "Apple Island". This didn't last though with supermarkets altering the restrictions and requirements. There are still a few orchards, but also cherry tree orchards plus cattle and sheep farms.

We got to the Huon township early in the morning. This area was named after the middle name of a naval captain from Brittany, France, who landed here in the early days of western exploration. The valley, river, township, forest, and a few trees now bear his name. From the township we turned off towards his forest to go find some of his trees.

Tasmania, like much of Australia and New Zealand, has a history of timber. Initially this was selective logging, only taking the very best which had to be hauled out of the forest. This had the benefit of leaving some of the oldest, slightly rotten, trees, and the youngest which would become regrowth. 

What followed resulted in much more debate. Tasmania is one of the few places in the world to still be cutting down its native forest. They do have vast tracts of land set aside as national park, about a third of the entire island, so the ecosystem is relatively safe. Yet they still have large areas of native tree which they have been strip felling since the late 60s. In parts this has regrown quite well but there are many slow growing species struggling to return. Hence there is an ongoing debate, and occasional protest, one side wanting to protect the forest, the other side wanting to protect their jobs.

The main timber company here is owned by the state of Tasmania. Over the years they've been trying to increase the amount of tourism the forest can bring. If the business from this could compete with the timber trade whilst providing jobs it might stand a chance of changing the situation. A number of projects have been tried, but only a few have been successful. The company has shrunk though, with occasionally laying off or workers. It's not easy for Tasmania to sell its wood internationally- most of e major Western nations have banned the trade in native forested timber and timber products. The future of the business isn't looking too good. As one of the major employers on the island though it would be an economic disaster if the logging simply stopped. Personally I wonder if the state government knows this can't go on forever and is going to steadily reduced the business, hoping other work will take over, as the opportunity to trade dwindles. It would seem like a smarter move, especially given that as much as the business might be struggling the island's economy and unemployment figures are not doing well. 

On a happier note we did go to see some of the tourist attractions that are actively working.

The Skytreck is a walkway in the canopy above an area of forest running next to the Huon River. From here we learnt about trees such as the Huon pine- the local tree used for EVERYTHING it would seem, particularly the local boat builders, one of the few businesses still making wooden boats. There was also the Cabbage leaf pine, a pine that unusually has broadened its spines making them into something more like leaves. And finally we saw a few of the young Red Gum Eukalyptus. These take hundreds of years to grow and most were felled in the Victorian era. Only those that appeared too old to fell and the youngest now remain. They grow tall and straight- the tallest still alive is around 99.6m high, far taller than the tallest building on the island. We didn't have time to go find this one but we did see some at over 50m high. If we're honest though, after the first 30m it's very hard from he ground to see much further up. Once old enough they will grow above the rest of the trees in the forest. This exposes them to the harsh weather so the trees must the strong enough to resist the worst of it. Hence the strong, thick, tall trees that the first colonists loved.

For lunch we went to the Hot Springs near the Hastings caves. I quickly walked around the local track to see the springs- small and no where near as hot as in New Zealand. Afterwards I jumped in for a quick dip in the swimming pool of spring water. It's small, busy, and about 20'C. Nice, but no NZ. I'm sure it feels much better on a cold day though- we had overcast weather, but still warm.

Afterwards we were off up the road to the Hastings Caves.

 During the felling of trees in the days of the colony they found the tall, thick trees the world wanted. Rather than cutting through the wide base steps were cut in the base and four men placed ledges around the point where the trunk started to narrow, about 2-4m up. From here they'd cut away until the tree started to fall. They wouldn't be entirely too sure which way it would go, so time to jump down and run and hide. So much for health and safety.

During one such felling the men managed to find a cave to hide in. No one had noticed it before and they had to come back later with lanterns to discover that the cave ran deep and grew into a great many chambers filled with geological structures formed as water from the rainforest above flowed through the dolerite.

One small problem though. Companies were granted access to specific pieces of land where they could fell. Often these areas would border one another in places deep in the forest. Who would know if the workers occasionally stepped over a border for a particularly profitably specimen? This is what had happened on that day- the men were not supposed to be in the area where the cave was!

The cave was a local secret for years until it was eventually opened as a tourist attraction. Even then it took days of travel through the bush to get to it. It wasn't until after the Great War, with returned servicemen needing jobs, that the government funded the building of a road to the area. Stairs down into the caves were added, as were oil lamps.

During these early days people carved graffiti into the rocks and took souvenirs by snapping off rock formations. Much of this damage can still be seen today. However the roof is around 20m below the ground level- in some places less. This means that, in conjunction with the amount of rain that falls here, the formations here are some of the fastest changing in the world. Our guide very jubilantly informed us that one of the pleasures in coming in here is how often features grow and change.

The features themselves are numerous, and similar to what I've blogged previously- though these were significantly more numerous and spectacular. As well as stalactites and stalagmites, some having fused into columns, there were fantastically long "straws" of mineral, flow stone, knobbly features that looked like pipe organs and rock formed into pockets by dripping water, making slippery puddles. From time to time the cave can flood, so there are a few branches lying around and atop formations, as well as a tide mark formed by the mud which flowed through the cave. There is a very small stream in the cave where much of the dripping water descends to. This flows down from the mouth and down into the rock.

It's unknown if the native people ever came here. With the changing in the rock any evidence could have been washed way. But also the cave is incredibly deep. Having passed into the mouth, through stoat iron gates, we met a steel fence. Beyond this the floor falls away. We were stood on the top a a large cliff, maybe 30ft high. Other than the modern stairs there's no obvious way down- the original European explorers climbed down with ropes. It would have been possible but both dangerous, and of relatively little value, for the Aboriginal people to have come in here.

Once onto this level we followed paths and stairs through around 5 large chambers with a different combination of features within each. These ranged from the size of a large house to a master bedroom.

That nigh was spent at the Tassie Backpackers in Hobart- possibly one of the worst hostels I've stayed in! But the beds were good, so night 100 of travelling wasn't all bad.

Day 12: Waitomo Caves- SO good

Thursday 17th December

5 of us from the Kiwi Experience bus, 2 Germans, a Finish couple, and Moi. Oh, and our cool guides too.

Travel: KE bus Hot Water Beach to Waitomo Caves, 223km, Caves, 3km? Let's go with that

Total Distance: 2394km

5 hours of brilliant awesomeness!

Not that street level awesome. Not even that Britain Just Got Its First Non-dual Citizen In To Space awesome. No. That proper takes your break away and opens up new worlds to your personal life awesome. To everyone who told me to go for the full big 5 hour adventure, thank you. SO GOOD.

Waitomo, like North Yorkshire, is a region founded on limestone. This rock dissolves slowly due to water flow (although it's becoming faster as we get more acidic rain). Over time this wears holes in the rock, taking millions of years to form caves, tunnels, stalactites, stalagmites, st was, flow stone, cave coral, and waitomos. Waitomo is a Maori work roughly translated to mean hole in the earth where water goes into/comes from. They are the holes eroded between the surface and the tunnels beneath, normally by water flowing through a crack over thousands of years to make the crack larger.

Our two guides were cool. One was a young guy who'd been there for a while. The other was a younger lass who was missing one hand. If you don't know why this is important to me catch up on my blog posts from end of August to November, particularly the whinny one about life in a cast. She could handle here gear faster than most climbers I've ever seen. We had a good chat about living in NZ on the drive to the caves. My interest in her might also have been helped by her being beautiful, funny, interesting, out going, joyful, bright... you know, all the things that make you wonder if migrating back is really such a good idea. Anyway...

The Team

We were all fitted with wetsuits and climbing harnesses. I took my high tech thermals too, basically like Lycra with a shiny inside, because they've kept we toasty for canyoning in the past, and caves are generally not that warm (though generally steady all year round, so great in winter). We were given 2 carabiners and a 5 bar abseiling rig- I've been climbing for over a decade and I can't remember ever using a 5 bar before, interesting bit of kit that I won't nerd out by explaining. (Dear Mum, it's safe, don't worry.) Then off in the bus to training.

"Training"

There was a wee training session, using ropes outside to practice abseiling, ensuring we could slowly descend and stop properly. Then we were off on our own!

The waitomo we were to enter through was surrounded by green, tropical bush, and has a steel walkway built above it. As would soon become the theme of the day, I was pushed to the front by the group to go first. I looked down into the pitch black hole and slid off the walkway into the abyss. 

Ready to go

The cave is an hourglass shape, narrowing such that I had to twist around to fit throughthe gap, before twisting back to get my feet on the wall. From here I could turn slightly to look down at the..at the...where's the bottom? How deep is this thing?

(That's not me)

I slid down into the darkness, before hitting the floor. Unclipping from the rope, I moved out of the way for the others to follow, using just enough light to find a seat before the German lads followed. With the lights out I could see the creatures this area is famous for.

Up above, attached across the whole roof, and in some places the walls, were the tiny green cloud of glowing jewels. Up there, high above us, one could see nothing but their little lights, as the rest of the team abseiled in.

Once gathered we had a chat about how the caves are formed, the formations in the cave, and some of the fossils found there. Limestone is formed from the reminents of crustacean shells building up on the floor bed. Occasionally some of the shells remain intact or skeletons are buried with them and have become fossilised. Later we would see more fossils including a whale rib.

From here we went to the rope swing. 

Pick your spirit animal.

Think of the noise that animal makes.

Now be tied to a rope and be hurtled through a pitch black cavern making that noise.

Fun times.

The guy before me made a noise that sounded like an alcoholic seal. He said it was a dog. His dog needs seeing to.

I went with a fox- and given that the mating call of a fox is basically a scream mine was easy! Not to mention fun. Even if no one know what it was.

We regrouped on a high ledge, watching people who had been on the tour before us paddle past in the stream below. Hot chocolate and biscuits were passed around as we stared up at yet more glow worms.

Our ledge had a steel platform attached to the side of it, placed over a deeper section of the stream below. Can you guess what this was for? No, we didn't just jump in. We jumped in with our rubber ring -theoretically- landing in it. Some of us could pull off having our fat arse stuck in and getting it to stay. Others managed to get onto the water, only for the ring to Buck and toss them face first into the black lagoon. A lovely welcome to cave water.

We made our way up stream, splashing around, swimming, paddling, walking. The glow worms grew thicker above our heads and the roof grew closer. 

Eventually the point at which most groups turn back was reached. Here we saw a juvenile Waitomo, water raining down from the ceiling through a crack above our heads, slowly opening at glacial speed. 

We were the last group of the day and only half sized compared to the norm. This meant we'd spent half as long doing the first stages, and the same would be true of later. We had time to spare. And the cave didn't stop here. In the way back I would over hear one guide telli another that he hadn't been down here in a long time, so it wasn't BS when he told us this wasn't the norm. We were going further into the caves, and it was phenomenal.

Before we entered he slammed his ring down on the water three times, making an explosive noise. We then swam, quietly, as the cave shrank and the glow worms got closer. Yet the light became stronger. They became more numerous. I kept my headlamp off to be able to see them better. We began to see the silk threads hanging from below each form, occasionally with a dead insect trapped within. A worm might be seen feasting on its little victim, the starry sky above hoped to entrap more victims. 

We eventually reached the sump, where the roof meets the water, the cave becomes narrow, and one needs scuba gear to cover the next 50m to find the next cavern. The worm silk hung down, not quite reaching our faces. We could see their long, clear bodies, like a thin, elongated caterpillar with a glowing bum. Lights were extinguished and we sat in the light. There were far more worms here than further down. Vastly more. The walls shone with bioluminescence. It was astounding.

Lights off, floating, we silently slid down stream, past millions of points of light. Though not before our guide had, again, hammered the water with his float. After this it was pure tranquility, floating in the darkness, staring up at an alien sky.

The reason for banging the water with his ring was to generate air flow. This vibrates the worm silk, making them believe there are insects very nearby, such that they increase the luminescence, giving a brighter light for a short time. Singularly the effect isn't, for human eyes, vast, but times it by a few million and it's very noticeable.

We kept going, past our young waitomo, past our high ledge, and further on to the dam built to keep the stream consistent throughout the caves, up stream and down. For this section, rather than a boring jump over the dam, there's a water slide! Which we went down head first, of course.

We still had some time to go, but now was a good place to stop.

"Does anyone need a wee?"

The group looked sheepishly at each other. We were in a cave in New Zealand, about to do more caving. Well, as much as I didn't want to do it with a vague idea of trying to tie myself in a knot, it's also another one to add to tick of the bucket list. Or urinal list. I've had the chance to pee in some amazing places before now, might as well add it.

"Yeh, it might help", the group looked relieved that someone had said yes, and we split off to find relief in the caves.

As the water level fell the numbers of glow worms decreased. They live off insects that pupate from the water before flying around the cave. Less water, less food.

The next section of the cave is the Drunken Stumble- an area with an uneven floor making people walk as though they've had a good night out in Glasgow. To this end we were each given a rock. The challenge was to not get it wet. (This is a very good idea for the point of view of health & safety, ensuring everyone watches their footing whilst having fun.) Our group could have been perfect. Yet at the end there was a ledge to climb up onto, where our first person promptly put his rock-hand down to steady the climb up, getting his rock wet in the process. Whereas I grew up in a house with squeaky floor boards and a family that wake up to anything- I've got my ninja walk well practiced.

Our next obstacle was a medium sized water fall.

Task 1: don't end up in the super deep hole at the top- our guide jumped in to show us and disappeared for enough time for me to think we'd lost him. He returned fighting for air. Yeh, I'll stay clear of that one.

2: Bomb off it! I can do a decent bomb, hurtling off and drenching the caves with my splashing, getting a jovial laugh from the guides.

3: Crawl under the waterfall! This wasn't easy, the ledge under was narrow and the water thundered inches above me. Honestly couldn't help but make a joyful WHOO! when half way through.

We carried on to a junction where it was time for hot orange squash and Whittaker's chocolate. Nomnomnom. 

From here a nice, big, well worn tunnel branched off to the left. That wasn't our turning. We were going ahead. Through the tiny little hole through which the stream was escaping. I got down on all fours and began to crawl, moving through the water, along some tunnels, and straight into a waiting camera!

We met some eels whilst in the caves. The first we met was slightly tame. They'd fed Cecil in the past, giving him little bits of meat, and now he comes to splashing on the surface. He's been there a very long time. There are a few further along. Eels are territorial, so one will push out another, apparently often with replacements being a similar size, making it hard to know how long each eel really has been in its personal chamber-pool. They start off in life in the oceans around Tonga, coming to NZ where they swim up stream, occasionally getting into the caves. They aren't the evolved, albino varieties that some places have. Just normal, smart, vicious, cute, tasty, eels. 

The eels we saw were about 2 feet long and about the thickness of my wrist. They have had bigger ones though. We came to another waterfall, this one flowing against us such that we had to step up onto it. Here someone had once put their hand on a large "log" only for it to swim off. An eel at least 6 inches in diameter resting after trying to go further up river. Probably 2 metres in length, maybe more. Pretty rare though.

We got a group photo at the waterfall.

"Left Right Left Left, and don't go down the big hole, OK?"

"Left Left Right Left, don't go down. OK."

"No. Left Right Left Left, No hole."

"Left Right Left Left, no extra caving, scream like a little girl if lost. OK."

I was first into the little labyrinth, crawling along. It was made easier by the slight ware visible on the rocks. Though I did have a moment of starring at the big hole. Where does that go? Then someone bumped into the back of me.

We had two large waterfalls to free climb. 3-4 metres each, with help from the guides to guide us (useful, eh?) up and over without being washed away. Yay, rock climbing! I miss regular climbing like I used to do at Uni.

Finally we crawled through a tunnel which had roots growing out of the bottom of the stalactites in the ceiling. Like little ice cream cones with a tuft sticking out of the bottom. This seemed odd until I realised how close we were to the finish. :(

The exit was a little hole in another forest. We had a group photo. It was getting dark. Past 9pm! We'd been down there a long time. Time for bed.