Deep excitement over NZ cave discovery
15 Apr 2010
The discovery of a new and very deep cave near Nelson in the South Island is being hailed as the biggest news in the history of New Zealand caving, and could have positive ramifications for tourism.
A team of three cavers have made the connection between two known caves in the Ellis Basin, below Mt Arthur in southern Nelson - Tasman, and say the discovery gives New Zealand its first recorded cave deeper than 1000m.
The new cave, which could make the top 10 list of the world’s deepest caves, has already created a lot of international interest.
Gruelling journey
Expedition leader Kieran McKay, of Waitomo, says the discovery was made on the final day of a gruelling journey to link up several caves in the area.
"It's a huge discovery, the biggest piece of news in the New Zealand caving scene, ever.
"It has sparked a lot of interest internationally as well. Cavers that had dismissed New Zealand for deep caves are already talking about coming out here," McKay said.
End of the rope
McKay and fellow cavers Aaron Gillespie of Geraldine, in the South Island and Troy Watson, of Waitomo in the North Island, made the discovery on the last day of the caving season when they were down to the last few metres of their 1km-long rope.
The trio had endured beaten bodies, squeezing through tiny holes for up to 30m at a time and temperatures as low as 2°C during the 10-day mission, said McKay.
He said generations of cavers had laid the foundation that led to the momentous occasion.
"We finished the project but it was started in the 1960s by cavers who first explored the area and the groundwork that they laid has really helped us. Hundreds of cavers and thousands of hours have been involved in this discovery," he said.
Caving career highlight
McKay said the discovery meant the group had experienced the highlight of their caving careers, but it wasn’t what they'd expected at the start of the day.
"We looked at our maps and were pretty excited to start with because the two caves were heading straight for each other and then one went straight across the top of the other and we thought `hold on a minute, they are meant to connect'.
"We got quite down about it and despondent because it was quite a hard cave and every time we went in and out of it we felt as if we had been really beaten up, it was quite hard work," he said.
Top 80 deepest caves
Then, while sitting in a huge chamber they decided to make one last effort to squeeze through a hole using their last bit of rope.
"It was a miserable tight crack and we thought 'here we go, last bit of rope then we'll have to go home. But we went for a bit of a climb and jumped down to the floor and then realised I was looking at another cave in the system," said McKay.
The system went from 775m to 1026m with the discovery making it one of the top 80 deepest caves in the world, but with a bit more exploration work should get into the top 10 next summer, he said.
Watson’s reward
The discovery was especially rewarding for Troy Watson, whose father was one of the original cavers to explore the system in the 1960s.
The system is 33.4km long - making it the second longest cave in New Zealand after the 66km Bulmer Cavern under Mt Owen - and comes after extensive work was completed during a nine-person expedition to the area in late January, said McKay.
New Zealand caves
In June 2008 New Zealand cavers had another major breakthrough when they discovered a new passage through 500 million-year-old rock deep inside Kahurangi National Park, in the north west South Island.
While much of New Zealand is known to have caves - limestone, metamorphic variety marble or lava - the best known areas for caving are Waitomo in the North Island's Waikato region, and the South Island regions of Nelson and northern Westland.
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