There are many types of cavers, we have the hard core explorers that cave at a Ferrari’s pace, then we have cavers that will go caving from a few times a month to a few times a year at a leisurly pace, then there are some that are hardcore cave photographers that will sit for long period of time slower than a snails pace by sitting in the one spot trying to get that perfectly positioned shot......well this trip, it didn’t matter what type of caver you were, you just had to have a dam good twisted sense of humour.
It had been a while since it rained in the area, and December was looking like a dry March, the first half of the cave is usually is a bit damp and wet but on this occasion its been dry, including some of the upper lakes in the system, but surprisingly the 2nd half of the cave the water is still strongly dripping from every crack in the ceiling, despite the drought on the surface, Its a relatively easy cave, with a 10 metre abseil down a thin crack, created by a rock fall, but its a bit fiddley coming up, but as Im a bit on the big side, this is not a problem for most, just fiddly.
As we went through the cave we were taking getting changed into the onesies and dong some video clips in front of some rooms with great formations. After about 7 hours inside somewhere that would take most people 3-4 hours, we exited in what felt like a heat wave, it must have been about 30 degrees, it was the usual stares from the tourists on the way to the car park, but it was beer o’clock and the BBQ was calling back in Nelson.
