Taking the Tube

“Taniwha Cave Tubing, embraces much of what makes the New Zealand West Coast so special, with its combination of wild rivers, unspoiled forest, turbulent mining history … and an adventurous spirit,” Jim Eagles describes in an article for the Warwick Daily News. “I’m lying comfortably on my back, gently drifting down a river the colour of Earl Grey tea, through a magnificent green forest, watching the stars twinkle up above. Sounds romantic … and it was in a way … but what I was lying on was the tube of a truck tyre, the river was running under the forest in a tunnel dug by rapacious goldminers, the water was icy cold and the stars were, in fact, glow worms on the tunnel roof. Welcome to one of the delightfully crazy activities offered by Greymouth’s Wild West Adventures.”