Glowworms, rubber tubes, and the Nile: A most unusual adventure in New Zealand

The limestone caves of Charleston, New Zealand, have been around for ages. (Photo by Aidan Schurr/Underworld Rafting)

The citizens of Charleston, about 500, according to the 2018 census, might disagree, but there is nothing redeeming about the somnolent little village that lies by the Tasman Sea on the west coast of South Island, New Zealand.

When I went there some time ago — and I’m pretty sure not much has changed since then — there were a few taverns, a single restaurant, and a dull hotel.

But if you ever find yourself driving on the State Highway 6 that runs all the way from Nelson, to the north of South Island, to Invercargill, at its southern tip, I’d urge you to halt at Charleston for a bit and seek out Underworld Adventures, which has created unique capsules of activities in the limestone caves and rainforests (the Paparoa National Park) that surround the little village. One of them is called Underworld Rafting, and the name doesn’t even begin to describe the singularity of the adventure.

Glowworm colonies seen in the upper left corner (Photo credit: Aidan Schurr/Underworld Rafting)

There are many ingredients that come together to create the experience. Some of these, such as the rainforest, the river Nile, and the limestone caves, have been around for ages; the others include two tiny trains called Cecil and Dorothy, a railway line that takes you through the rain forest, wet suits, caving helmets with LED lights, waterproof rubber boots, and rubber tubes.

I wear the rather incongruous outfit and get into the Cecil, which has been built by Ray Moroney, who co-founded Underworld Adventures along with fellow caver and educationist Geoff Schurr in the late 1980s. The toy-train-ish Cecil, built by Moroney and Schurr, advances quietly through the lush rainforest, along the Nile River and under towering limestone cliffs.

The short 15-minute train ride is followed by a pleasant walk deeper into the forest until we reach the upper level of a limestone cave system and walk right in. It is dark as unconsciousness inside and the air is both damp and musty. We switch on the LED lights on our helmets, and as Moroney leads me through the over 25,000-year-old cave system, the beams reveal stalactites and stalagmites, dripping from the walls in both spectacular and torturous shapes.

We keep walking, descending levels of the cave system until we hear the faint rush of water flowing outside. Moroney switches off the LED light on his helmet and asks me to do the same. He then thwacks his rubber tube on the ground and parts of the roof of the cave we are in light up. The ‘lit’ portions are glowworm colonies, which inhabit the cave system and have mistaken the vibrations caused by the rubber tube for the buzz of flies and hope to attract them into their sticky webs. I gaze at the galaxies overhead before following Moroney, as he searches for an underground water channel on which we will float out of the cave system. Once he does that, we both throw our rubber tubes into the gently flowing channel, jump on it, and paddle our way outside the cave systems and onto the Nile River.

It is a brilliant day outside: cool, crisp and mildly sunny. But, as I float gently on the river, I remember a remark Moroney made when we were inside the caves: that sometimes, the best sights in nature are the ones we cannot see.