Once on a trip to New Zealand the group I was hanging out with decided to go on a "caving adventure" that was suggested by the Hostel. So on the appointed day a stoned-looking dude rolls up in a busted Jeep, loads the 4 of us in the back with his dog and takes us to his camp in the middle of nowhere. The camp is basically a shack with a couple of solar showers situated next to a narrow looking crack in the ground. He suited us up in multiple layers of slightly damp (hopefully from the wash) wool thermals, rubber boots and helmets. Then we descended into the dark. We spent the next 5 hours on a harrowing trek underground, requiring us to crawl for stretches of up to 200 m at a time through holes in the ground barely wider than our bodies. In many places water would pour onto your face as you made your way forward, just to add to the claustrophobia.

People panicked. One girl had a full blown panic attack and stopped moving, forcing those of use crawling behind her to try to talk her down wile the water poured on us. Dude who led the expedition was completely unhelpful. He kept saying "We can't turn back now - keep going or we'll be stuck down here." I thought I might die down there. Somehow we did manage to get through it and I have never been so happy as when we finally surfaced.

Later we heard that there have been several cave collapses in the area a few months after we had been there.

Caving. Never again.