Expedition Report
Eight members of the Imperial College Caving Club went to the South Island of New Zealand for three weeks in April to find and explore new caves, to gain more experience, to make contacts with the New Zealand caving community, and to present exploration caving to a wider audience.
The original plan was to base themselves on Mount Owen, travelling the final leg by helicopter. However the group were told that as a result of strong winds and impending bad weather, the helicopter pilot was unwilling to fly up to Mt Owen. As an alternative the group camped near the Nelson Speleological Group hut on the Takaka Highway for several days, where they hoped that the weather would improve and allow them to reach Mount Owen. Here they were able to explore Ed’s Cellar cave, where they discovered a new passage deep in the network, and also used the time to seek entrances to new cave systems.
Unfortunately snow descended on Mount Owen, and was forecast to freeze, therefore covering the openings to any potential caves in the area and ruling out the original objective. The team decided to head to Takaka Hill instead, a region covered with deep, old, unexplored forest and razor blade crags of rock, made from the same marble as Mt Owen, and known to contain caves and sinkholes. They established their base camp on Canaan Downs.
Exploration in the area involved pushing through the dense, almost impenetrable forest, and razor sharp karst. Although it was frustrating not to discover one large cave system that everyone could push at the same time, the weather was far better than it had been, with glorious sunshine, and being above ground, sometimes hiking through the meadows and grasslands proved to be very pleasant to the group. In addition this led to the discovery of several new caves, Weta than Ever, Black Helix and Red Dog/Dead Rogue. These caves were surveyed to BCRA Grade 5.
