We are a small family business and our adventures are run from our home.
I'm Paul, your guide, and I started caving when I was sixteen (over 25 years ago now, ouch!) and rock climbing in 1993. I studied earth sciences at university and got a holiday job as a Glowworm Cave guide in the summer of 1986/87. I became one of the first 'Black Water Rafting' guides when Black Water Rafting started and later was a founding partner of "cave canoeing", an adventure tour which evolved into what is now "Rap Raft n Rock" after I left to work as a geologist in Australia. After about seven years of looking for minerals in the Aussie outback I spent a summer season guiding for the Legendary Black Water Rafting company and then followed Dana to Germany. I lived there for about a year and a half, did a fair bit of climbing, got married and became a dad. After dragging my family back to New Zealand, I guided "Spellbound" tours for about a year and a half and then moved to guiding tours for Rap Raft n Rock, which I have done for most of the last four years until starting Green Glow. I also picked up a couple of NZOIA (New Zealand Outdoor Instructors Association) qualifications along the way - Cave 1 (stage 1 caving instructor) in 1992 and Rock 1 (stage 1 rock climbing instructor) in 1995.
Why "Green Glow"? After we moved out here I went for a walk to what the locals call 'the natural bridge' - it turned out to be exactly that, the farm track crosses the Mangapu stream using the cave as a bridge! I was looking for a spot to take my son to play in the stream and so went down into the 'canyon' for a look and started going "Wow!!". I went back several times over the next few months and explored the cave and gorge system, and just kept going "Wow!!". I've done lots of stuff in the outdoors over the years and I reckon it takes a fair bit to get that sort of reaction out of me now! Anyway I started thinking that it would be a great spot to take adventure tours - with the cliffs, caves, gorge and bush the place is like a really pretty adventure playground for grownups! It took a while to get everything in place but eventually things came together as "Green Glow eco-adventures". Oh yes, the name - it's from the way the bush gives the light that green tint, particularly in the cave entrances, and the glowworms are a greenish blue too...
I'm Paul, your guide, and I started caving when I was sixteen (over 25 years ago now, ouch!) and rock climbing in 1993. I studied earth sciences at university and got a holiday job as a Glowworm Cave guide in the summer of 1986/87. I became one of the first 'Black Water Rafting' guides when Black Water Rafting started and later was a founding partner of "cave canoeing", an adventure tour which evolved into what is now "Rap Raft n Rock" after I left to work as a geologist in Australia. After about seven years of looking for minerals in the Aussie outback I spent a summer season guiding for the Legendary Black Water Rafting company and then followed Dana to Germany. I lived there for about a year and a half, did a fair bit of climbing, got married and became a dad. After dragging my family back to New Zealand, I guided "Spellbound" tours for about a year and a half and then moved to guiding tours for Rap Raft n Rock, which I have done for most of the last four years until starting Green Glow. I also picked up a couple of NZOIA (New Zealand Outdoor Instructors Association) qualifications along the way - Cave 1 (stage 1 caving instructor) in 1992 and Rock 1 (stage 1 rock climbing instructor) in 1995.