Riwaka Caves
Saturday 7th June 2008
Paul N, Paul G, Sean, Andy, Angus, Karen & Doug, Claire
The famous Riwaka Resurgence is formed by the flow of the Riwaka River through
the sub-terrain cave system under the Takaka Hill. Small dark confined spaces don't
usually appeal to me. When they're filled with water, and under a substantial land
mass the attraction is waning. However I'd heard great things about the huge
chamber at the end filled with stalactite and stalagmite formations. Since being
accompanied by some well travelled divers though, it was a good chance for my first
cave dive.
The meeting time of 11 am at the Riwaka carpark was the most civilised aspect of a
club dive I'd ever heard. Luck for Andy he was an early starter, and after realising
he'd left a weight belt at home had just enough time to make a quick dash back to
Motueka to retrieve it.
Pulling on a wet suit whilst standing on ice frosted grass, faced with the prospect of
jumping into chilly freshwater, doesn't exactly engender ones self to what was
supposed to be recreational pastime. Why do we do it?? We soon warmed up,
however, following a couple of hundred metres hike up hill with all our gear to the
entrance pool all ready for the big plunge.
The first group to go meekly sunk into the water..."It's not so bad.." someone yelped.
Famous last word, perhaps? Paul N had bravely volunteered to be our intrepid
leader for the day, and wisely kitted up in his trade mark green & black dry suit. In
fact, there was only one (brave?) soul who ventured in what was a truly wet -wetsuit
all credit to Andy! So the first group were away - torches in hand, fluro sticks
strapped on, into the dark depth of the resurgence we descended...
Dive in the first sump takes you to through a very short 12 m passage
(approximately 12 m ), where you then surface. The hardest & most exhausting part
of the dive experience was the scramble over the rocks in between sumps, trying not
to fall over whilst keeping a tight grip on my fins & torch.
At the end of the second sump, we had arrived at the huge chamber, where we
discarded cumbersome gear & started exploring.
The highlight is undoubtedly this extensive chamber, where you will see the great 20
m pink limestone wall. Aside from this, there are many wonderful other boulders
and limestone formations to clamber over and explore.
Finally, it was time for the return dive back, following the same route, it seemed
almost too short a dive on the way back. Another great sight to marvel was the
filtering haze of light filtering down through the entrance, where we finally surfaced
in the small inconspicuous pool. Many thanks to Paul for being patient leader!