Bulmer Cavern is New Zealand's longest

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

system, running for through Mount Owen in the

Tasman Tasman most often refers to Abel Tasman (1603–1659), Dutch explorer. Tasman may also refer to: Animals and plants * Tasman booby * Tasman flax-lily * Tasman parakeet (disambiguation) * Tasman starling * Tasman whale People * Tasman (name), ...

region of the northwest

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

.Caving in New Zealand
(from Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand) John Patterson discovered the cave on New Year's Day 1984, by dropping a rock down and counting the seconds until it reached the bottom. Bulmer Cavern was the location of a major

cave rescue Cave rescue is a highly specialized field of wilderness rescue in which injured, trapped or lost cave explorers are medically treated and extracted from various cave environments. Cave rescue borrows elements from firefighting, confined space res ...

effort in 1998, when it took 80 cavers several days to extract another caver who had fallen and broken his jaw deep in the cavern.Caving equipment and culture
from Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand)

References

External links

Caving areas in New Zealand
Caves of the Tasman District {{Tasman-geo-stub