Megamania is a cave I have always wanted to visit since I heard vague mentions of it. It is the 4th longest cave in NZ (over 15km of mapped passage), but next to impossible to find a map or accounts of trips there. So I jumped at the chance to be a part of a well-organized expedition to this remote cave in Kahurangi National Park. It would be a joint expedition between Nelson and Wellington cavers so lots of familiar faces, and a few new ones. I had my pack flown in in the helicopter and walked/ran in on the Heaphy track with a light daypack. It was true luxury and I made it to the Heaphy Hut in 2.5hrs. I continued on, taking a detour to look for Fields Cave. To my great surprise I found it instantly. It was an impressive little cave. The front half is an enormous trunk passage with several skylight entrances at intervals. The rest of the cave carries on past Hanging Rock Corner (above) where giant chockstones are wedged dramatically and light filters down between. Also impressive were the giant roots that snaked their ways across the passage floors.
As I was the last to arrive at camp, I found it already well set up. It seemed like I was the only one who did not have a tent fly. I found a small, moderately-flat spot between ferns and juvenile rimus, just barely big enough for my tent, but good enough to be my home for the week. The warm, tanin-stained river was a stone's throw away. Evening baths in the river were a delight despite the 4ft eels that would occasionally swim by. The warm water, lush rainforest and humid temperatures reminded me a great deal of Borneo to my satisfaction. Unfortunately the mosquitoes and sandflies quickly found our camp and patrolled in shifts. There was usually a nightly massacre of sandflies and mosquitoes in my tent before I could go to sleep.
Camp kitchen
The longest I have lived in one place in the last 2 months.
The first day of the expedition a keen friend and I did some vicious bush-bashing in an area that had never been explored before. Never had I seen kie kie and supplejack in so potent a combination. It took us the whole day to travel about 2 kilometers. While we did not find the extensive cave we hoped to find, we found some amazing karst and lots of potential for a yet undiscovered system. We explored about 50 sinkholes and dropped about a half dozen pit entrances (tomos), finding them all previously unexplored. Since we had a GPS, we were able to mark the locations of where we looked to save other cavers the trouble. We did not travel nearly as far as we planned to, but this just goes to show that there is still a huge cave out there somewhere, and that only persistence will find it.
The second day of the expedition Justin and I planned to do a full traverse of the backbone passages of Megamania. After a detour to look at the impressive main entrance, we dropped down Shortcut Tomo and had a look at the amazing anthodite formations in a hidden grotto near the entrance. We then carried on past Orgasmia to the spacious dimensions of Megablast. We had some navigational trouble finding our way through the Passage of Passing Waters, but eventually got on the right track and found the Great Wall. We popped out the Big Chicken entrance for a snack before heading on. We briefly joined another group to search for the Treadmill, a remarkable sandy chute that connects the lower level (which we were in) to the upper level (which we could see above). I managed to find it with the help of another group looking for it from the top. Justin and I continued on through the wonderfully pleasant Gold Rush Passage, particularly admiring a dramatic but easy traverse over a 25m deep hole in the floor. We had a quick look at the Gold Rush entrance before ascending up the rope at the Seagull Airways entrance. Despite a great full day of caving, we still made it back to camp at a comfortable time.
Megablast
Trying to find the Treadmill
Gold Rush Passage
Cave pearls
Seagull Airways
Day 3 Justin, Richard and I did some horrible bush-bashing in search of a shaft we found the previous day. At the worst of it, it took us about a half hour to go 40m! We dropped the muddy and loose 25m shaft to find a rock blocking passage beyond. Justin and I rigged a pully, were able to move the rock, and Justin bravely slid through the mud in his yellow PVC cave suit. It sumped convincingly in 5m- oh well. Grot Pot we less than enthusiastically named it. We then used my GPS and compass to try to locate Gold Rush entrance for the first time ever. This could have taken all day, perhaps without success, but we found it remarkably easy- it was the first place I looked. We got a GPS coordinate, rigged the drop, and were the first people to ever enter the cave from this entrance (the entrance has never been found from the surface). It was a particularly beautiful abseil. We then traveled through the cave and exited via Big Chicken. Despite a "trail," it seems like every time back to camp we take a slightly different route.
Day 4 a group of four of us decided to survey Minimania Cave, a resurgence system on the Gunner River. This involved putting all of our gear in clothes in a waterproof barrel, swimming into the entrance, then suiting up to begin the survey. It is an usual cave as every passage eventually is filled up with sediment or collapse and progress is made only by traversing chance interconnecting passages. We surveyed about 150m and spent a bit of time digging at a drafting pile of rather large rocks. Hypothermia no longer an issue, most wore their muddy cave clothes out of the cave for a good clean. I spent some time bouldering on the overhang above the cave until I saw a 1.5m eel heading for me and decided I had enough. On my stroll back to camp I saw a pair of the extremely rare blue ducks casually patrolling the river, which were a welcome sight.
Minimania
Passageway to the rest of the cave
Blue ducks (whio)
The last full day Justin and I had planned to go in Big Chicken entrance. We found a good trail and got to talking. Eventually we found ourselves on a part of the trail very unfamiliar. I turned on my GPS...we had overshot Big Chicken and were now a mere 30m from the Crimson & Clover entrance! We consulted our cave map and decided that it would ultimately put us closer to where we wanted to go. About 100m of very pleasant cave brought us to where the connecting passage should have been. We searched for over an hour, exhausting every possibility before deciding the map was just plain wrong (it was not the first time). We then went to check out "P33" on the map- worst case scenario we should be able to get down. As luck would have it one of the other groups just happened to be walking through Charming Creek as I looked out on it from above. It was certainly a possibility and looked to be less than a P33. We strolled down the Busting Blues passage to its end, only then realizing what we thought was a connecting passage was actually a lower level. We went back to P33, easily rigged a 8m drop, pulled the rope down after us, and finally were back on track heading up Charming Creek to its entrance.
After a snack we headed across country, finding the seldom-visited Beyond Words entrance (yet to be connected to Megamania) with no trouble at all. Justin and I explored the mazy breakdown upper levels, eventually sorting out where we were on the poor survey. We managed to find the enormous 20m formation chambers, then after a few other detours had lunch by glowworm light next to the stream. We rigged a 20m pitch to drop into the streamway and climbed and traversed our way past the waterfalls and pools. This was extremely pleasant caving- much different from the dry caving in Megamania. We followed the stream a long way (~250m) to where it was about to sump. I found a spiraling mud chute that put us into 400m or so of very impressive upper level passage. It became clear this cave has a lot more to offer! We both got a thorough soaking climbing back up our rope. We rushed back to the Charming Creek entrance in 5 minutes. A 2 minute bush bash convinced us to get to Big Chicken through the cave and not overland. We did not even wear knee pads or suits and made it from Charming Creek to Big Chicken in a mere 32 minutes. We went from Big Chicken to the camp in less than an hour to make it back to camp 15 minutes before our call-out time. A solid, but exhausting, day.
At the top of the 20m pitch into the streamway
The week passed quickly. Overall the weather was terrific. Usually I would take at least one rest day but I managed to have full days every day. Reluctantly I packed and headed back down the river to the Heaphy in intermittent cloud bursts. I only had a light daypack and so did not even mind the rain. Stripping down to boxers, I made good time hiking/running out the Heaphy, only to wait several hours for the helicopter to arrive with the rest of the cavers and all of our gear.
About to walk back out to the Heaphy
No comments:
Post a Comment