Caving Caving – also known as spelunking in the United States and Canada and potholing in the United Kingdom and Ireland – is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology i ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

is an established hobby as well as being a part of commercial tourism. Recreational caving is practised by several hundred members of caving associations all over New Zealand, who take advantage of the widespread

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

cave systems present in the country, especially in the

Waitomo District Waitomo District is a territorial authority, located in the Waikato region, at the north of the King Country area in the North Island of New Zealand. A small part of the district, the locality of Tiroa, however, lies in the Manawatū-Whanganui ...

of the North Island and in the

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

- Tasman region of the South Island. There are also several hundred thousands of visitors to various tourist caves in New Zealand per year,Caving tourism
(from Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Accessed 2008-06-16.) though a majority of these trips would not properly be called

caving Caving – also known as spelunking in the United States and Canada and potholing in the United Kingdom and Ireland – is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology i ...

History

Overview

New Zealand caving as an exploratory sport is thought to have started with a group of

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

-area people who started to explore the

lava cave A lava cave is any cave formed in volcanic rock, though it typically means caves formed by volcanic processes, which are more properly termed volcanic caves. Sea caves, and other sorts of erosional and crevice caves, may be formed in volcanic roc ...

s in the volcanic cones of the area in the 1940s (though commercialised trips through caves at

Waitomo Caves Waitomo is a rural community in the King Country region of New Zealand's North Island. There are several solutional cave systems in the area around the village, which are popular tourist attractions. Restaurants and accommodation are centred i ...

had actually already existed for several decades). The group quickly progressed to exploring caves in the

Waikato Waikato () is a Regions of New Zealand, local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipa District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton City ...

and

King Country The King Country (Māori: ''Te Rohe Pōtae'' or ''Rohe Pōtae o Maniapoto'') is a region of the western North Island of New Zealand. It extends approximately from the Kawhia Harbour and the town of Otorohanga in the north to the upper reaches of ...

areas, and the New Zealand Speleological Society was founded in 1949 by Henry Lambert, with the first rough facilities at Waitomo being established in 1955.Caving in New Zealand
(from Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand) In 1957, the discovery of Harwood's Hole in the South Island was to fully establish New Zealand as a country with extremely promising cave systems, and the cave with its 183 metre deep vertical entry shaft, and its passages extending for many hundreds of meters into the depths, was for a long time the deepest and most famous non-commercial cave in New Zealand. The area around Nelson also contains most of New Zealand's deepest caves (most discovered in the following decades), including Bulmer Cavern, a 70 km long cave system. New Zealand's cavers are mostly organised in the

New Zealand Speleological Society New Zealand Speleological Society is a national organisation for recreational cavers in New Zealand. It was formed in 1949 by Henry Lambert and had approximately 300 members in 2010. Mission Their stated mission is: * To be the national speleol ...

(NZSS), with 9 affiliated caving clubs with a total of 300 members all over the country.

Accidents and rescues

There have been a number of notable caving accidents since the 1940s, and at least four deaths .Caving equipment and culture
(from Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand) On 4 January 1960, Peter Lambert was killed by falling rocks while being winched out of Harwoods hole,Edgar Sixtus - One of the Early Cave Personalities
(from Red Rose Cave and Pothole Club Newsletter Volume 36 Number 2 Article 3 June 1999) and in 1995, Dave Weaver drowned while

cave diving Cave-diving is underwater diving in water-filled caves. It may be done as an extreme sport, a way of exploring flooded caves for scientific investigation, or for the search for and recovery of divers or, as in the 2018 Thai cave rescue, other ...

in Pearse Resurgence near Nelson. In 1998, one of the most active cavers of the country, Kieran McKay, broke his jaw in Bulmer Cavern on Mt Owen. While the cavern has few squeezes and crawls, the operation to retrieve him from deep within the cave occupied around 80 cavers (in direct position or as support) from all over the country for several days. In 2007, Michael Brewer, another experienced caver, was struck by falling rock deep within the Greenlink-Middle Earth cave, in an incident which attracted widespread media attention in the country. Brewer suffered cracked ribs, concussion, and a broken pelvis. It took about 3 days to get him to the surface (a 3 km distance normally taking 5 hours), and while most of the distance was covered with Brewer on a

stretcher A stretcher, gurney, litter, or pram is an apparatus used for moving patients who require medical care. A basic type (cot or litter) must be carried by two or more people. A wheeled stretcher (known as a gurney, trolley, bed or cart) is often ...

, and several tight squeezes were widened with explosives, he had to be pushed and pulled through some sections. The effort involved more than 50 cavers and cost around NZ$100,000. In 2008, Jane Furket, a 28-year-old experienced recreational caver and member of the Nelson Caving Club, fell in the Luckie Strike cave west of

Waitomo Waitomo is a rural community in the King Country region of New Zealand's North Island. There are several solutional cave systems in the area around the village, which are popular tourist attractions. Restaurants and accommodation are centred i ...

. She broke her hip and lost three teeth. New Zealand

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 ...

s are undertaken by

SAR SAR or Sar may refer to: Places * Sar (river), Galicia, Spain * Sar, Bahrain, a residential district * Sar, Iran (disambiguation), several places in Iran * Sar, Tibet, Tibet Autonomous Region of China * Šar Mountains, in southeastern Europe ...

teams composed of experienced cavers who have also undergone specialised training courses and exercises.

Caves

As well as lava caves in the

Auckland volcanic field The Auckland volcanic field is an area of monogenetic volcanoes covered by much of the metropolitan area of Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, located in the North Island. The approximately 53 volcanoes in the field have produced a diverse a ...

there are numerous limestone caves in the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

, with the most well known being the

. The longest and deepest caves are in the

Kahurangi National Park Kahurangi National Park in the northwest of the South Island of New Zealand is the second largest of the thirteen national parks of New Zealand. It was gazetted in 1996 and covers , ranging to near Golden Bay in the north. Much of what was t ...

in the

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 ...

Commercial caving operations

New Zealand offers a number of

adventure tourism Adventure travel is a type of niche tourism, involving exploration or travel with a certain degree of risk (real or perceived), and which may require special skills and physical exertion. In the United States, adventure tourism has grown in r ...

activities and one of them is caving. Most of the commercial caving is done in the

area, but there are also tours offered in

Fiordland Fiordland is a geographical region of New Zealand in the south-western corner of the South Island, comprising the westernmost third of Southland. Most of Fiordland is dominated by the steep sides of the snow-capped Southern Alps, deep lakes, ...

and on the

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

. Black water rafting, where the participants float through caves on tyre inner tubes, was an early tourism venture and has become extremely popular.

References

External links

New Zealand Speleological Society (NZSS)
(umbrella organisation of the New Zealand caving clubs) Tourist attractions in New Zealand