On the drive back from Paturau I was hoping to check out this hilltop subway tube. I first heard about this cave years ago from an Otago professor that visited with his family while staying on the coast. The locals knew about it long before the cavers did and I could imagine the cavers being somewhat in disbelief when the dimensions of the cave were being described (I know I was). I knew roughly where the cave was and where the track started (near the school that wasn't a school anymore!). With any luck I would find a marked track a short kilometer to the cave. Compared to other caves in the area I thought this would be a reasonable thing to do solo.
After driving back and forth several times trying to get a hint of where the trail started I stopped and asked a crusty local out for a walk. His response was helpful ("It starts over there at the edge of the property. Follow the markers up.") in the most unhelpful way (there ended up being multiple marked trails heading different directions, no markers for the crucial last 400 meters, and the cave entrance was thoroughly hidden behind a dense thicket of native bush). Nevertheless this was all the encouragement I needed to park at the Mangarākau Swamp, fight my way through the overgrown vegetation at the edge of the road, and two-steps-forward-one-step-back work my way up the hill towards the cave. As I climbed to the base of the limestone bluffs I was rewarded with great views of the wetlands below. Running on mostly intuition I managed to get within 50m of the cave's entrance before retreating a half-kilometer back. Miraculously I had service and decided to phone a friend. Oz was able to get back to me in short form with GPS coordinates and I was back in business, my hike saved. With the requisite knowledge I now went straight to the stooping height entrance that opened up into a spacious 200m-long subway tunnel through the hill with unique skylights on one side giving the appearance of Roman columns. There were pockets of nice formations but the most impressive feature of the cave was its vast dimensions, certainly the largest known in the Paturau area. My pictures do little to give a sense of scale. I have no doubt that Paturau still holds some stellar cave secrets.
After the cave I drove back around Whanganui Inlet (high tide this time) and back to Takaka unknowing what was next. Kieran gave me instructions to leave his borrowed disto with Rob Davies and gave me directions that seemed like they were a recipe for getting lost but ended up being spot on. Rob ended up being home and instead of a quick disto drop we nerded out about lidar, his cave draft measuring instruments, and I even got a tour of his property complete with cave entrances to over 10 kilometers of cave! This continued on to a tasty dinner with him and Michelle in town, me staying the night in what is apparently the oldest standing house in the Takaka Valley, and plans to go caving the next day. I had quite a mood shift from a lonely why-bother-I-want-to-go-home outlook the previous day to caving with new friends tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment