Exploring the caves of Whangarei

 Lon a Canadian Neighbor of ours here at the Marina asked us to explore some of the caves nearby. We grabbed our flashlights and boots and headed out there with him. The caves are on private land along an amazing path. The rocks in the photo above that Juli took were at one time underground. Erosion has raised and carved them into these amazing shapes.

 This is our friend Lon as he is entering one of the three cave systems we explored that day

 As you can see everything in NZ is well organized for the trekker. Land owners work very well with the hikers alowing access to these natural wonders free of charge. Very different from the good ole USA where there are stairs and access fees. Here its be warned its dangerous, if you go getting yourself hurt or worse dont say we didnt tell you.

This is the path leading to the caves. Its not a long walk. There are signs posted as to what cave is what. The medows are full of flowers and song birds. It's springtime here and an amazing point to arrive in NZ as all the plants are blooming, the birds are nesting and the air is heavy with the buzzing of bees.

 This is one of the cave entrances. It is a climb down of about 15 meters to a sandy stream bead at the bottom. The cave floor is sand and pebbles mixed with huge chunks of sedimentary rock that is layered black and white like a fine French pastry. The chunks remind one that the ceiling does fall from time to time and we did see signs of recent collapse where a large rock had come down and smashed a stalagmite off its stem.
One of the coolest parts of the passages were the small tunnels and side caves that branched off. Often the ceilings would rise up 30 meters.
When we were far into the caves we found cave crickets. Huge bugs. If you held one they would fill the palm of your hand.
Then we noticed white tendrals hanging from the cave walls. When we shut off our lights we could see glow worms like the stars of the night sky all over the ceiling of the caves.

 Juli and I had our rubber boots on and several times we found ourselves fording the streams in deep water so we made echos of sloshing water filled boots. We explored as far back into the caves as we could without swimming. The Big cave known to be the most dangerous called Organ cave named after the Pipe Organ like flowstone formations was very deep. I imagine we went back some 700 to 1000 feet in that cave.
It was always a joyful experience to see the bright sunshine as we exited the caves. I am curious to see if we can do more caving in NZ. Only next time with waterproof headlamps and wetsuits.