Riwaka Caves / Pupu Springs
26th February 2005
Source of the Riwaka, Pupu Springs,
On arrival at the Source of the Riwaka we kitted up and carried our gear to the dive site. We split into two groups of five. John Hornby proceeded with a reconnaissance dive to check conditions and found the existing line did not go where we wanted to go, so he took a new one in. Off the first group went consisting of John, The Leader of the Team; Brian, aka Irish; (prospective new members!), John (senior) Waller, his son John (junior) and myself. This was kind of handy, if you needed assistance all you had to do was ask for John! Or John! Or John! – then again there was always the Irishman! As I was in the middle of the group I had the luxury of slowly following the lights and glows sticks, looking around at the various structures as we were swimming along. Into the first sump, it was fins off, then a hump over the rocks, then back on with fins into the longer underwater section. We then took off our gear for a stroll up to the end of the cave.
Leader John, who was not feeling the best, moved like a mountain goat, whilst the rest of us followed as best we could. Exploring a cave to the left we discovered stalagmites and tites and other interesting limestone formations and cathedral tops. Upon leaving the cave Irish commented that he should have left his weight belt off! Lights shone upon his midriff then up to his face to see him grinning away – not even the Irish are that stupid! We then made the end and proceeded out the way we came in. John reminded us to turn our lights out prior to exiting, resulting in a spectacular view of the silhouetted diver in front against the sunlit water above.
We exited and the second group embarked on their dive into the cave. This team consisted of Paul, Leader and Cameraman, Neil, Nicola, Pauline and Stu (Tail-end Charlie). Unfortunately Pauline experienced buoyancy issues with her dry suit and decided to cut her dive short, wise move, as you don’t need problems when diving in a cave. When the remaining four divers surfaced, visions of excitement and wonderment on completion of the dive were written all over their faces. This is a must do dive, I would recommend it to anyone; it was obvious that particularly the first timers really enjoyed the experience. While we were in the cave an associate of Pauline’s, Juan from
Meanwhile John, John jnr and family headed over to Pupu Springs whilst the second team were in the caves. John Hornby went home, still not 100% and would meet us later at Mini Golf. After nearly 3 hours, the remainder of us drove over to Pupu Springs munching lunch in the van. Stu’s earlier comments were correct; the van had questionable handling and power, not much of a match for the Takaka hill!
At Pupu Springs the ever so wise Paul and Stu had a trolley each to carry their gear, very useful. We all played in the vents and swum happily around in the crystal clear waters of the bubbling springs under the watchful eye of a number of tourists. At about 4:00pm (making us somewhat late for the mini golf, booked for 3:00pm!) it was time for a drift dive. Paul led the way and Juan, Nicola, Neil, Irish and I followed. John and John jnr had already been in and out by the time we arrived. Paul advised us on a shallow water drifting technique (on your back, feet in the air) he now has a sore tailbone. I’m sure we all have one or two bruises as a result, but it was heaps of fun snorkelling down the river. There was plenty of fish life to be seen, trout, salmon and schools of baby fish.
The drift took about 45 minutes and ended at the second bridge. A word to the wise though, Paul had a moment when his fin buckle got caught in a tree branch, I understand not a pleasant experience. Everybody who noticed him thought he was just hanging on to a branch never mind that he was slowly sinking into the mire. However he managed to free himself and survived the day! Once out of the river we dried down whilst Hannah gleefully collected glow sticks off all the tanks. Off to mini golf we travelled, arriving a mere four and a half hours late. Here we met up with John H, Angus and family and the decision to flag it was made. So it was off to Stu’s for a BBQ, Beer and Health Spa for those in need. A huge but very enjoyable day out! The body was a little sore the next day but it was all well worth it.
Alan McMillan
