RIVAL WAITOMO?

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 39, 15 February 1934, Page 10

RIVAL WAITOMO?

CAVES IN TARANAKI. EXPLORATION AT AWAKINO. RARE REFLECTION OF BEAUTY The existence of a network of underground caves at Awakino, in many respects rivalling the Waitomo Caves, and little known even to residents of the district, has been revealed by the exploration work of a Xew Plymouth party comprising Messrs. K. Butcher, L. Black and D. Blancliard (states the "Taranaki Herald"). The caves are situated on a farm property some miles inland from Awakino on the old route to Auckland. They have not yet been fully explored, but there are maps of subterranean passages extending for miles in every direction. The walls of the main cave are honeycombed with minor caves, which for all that is known may extend for considerable distances. The whole system is a complicated network and a dangerous maze for unexperienced or incautious visitors. No Risks Taken. The Xew Plymouth party took no avoidable risks in thjir exploration. They were adequately equipped with candles and magnesium flares, and had a large ball of twine to guide them the best part of an afternoon, each member exhausting an entire candle in the process. How manj' miles they traversed they could not tell, for the darkness which closed in outside the range of the flickering candle?, prevented the estimation of either the passage of time or distance. The entrance to the underground maze is concealed until the searcher is right on top of it. Although a high range of hills has to be crossed to reach the site, this entrance plunges down into the earth from a gently-sloping paddock, perhaps the most remarkable feature of the remarkable system. It is about ten feet long and three feet wide, and drops sheer for 15 feet until a slope leading to the floor of the cave proper is reached. It is believed that the eaves were in existence berfeath the surface some time before this entrance was formed by the crumbling of a weakened portion of the top strata.

On the main passage there is a large chamber, estimated to be 50 feet long, 20 feet -wide, and about the same height. This is crammed full of stalacites and stalagmites, all of them big and solid, [showing that the whole system is of srreat age. This grotto was described by one member of the party who has visited the northern caves as fully equal to anything at Waitomo as far as sheer beauty is concerned. A Brilliant Spectacle. In tlie brilliant light of magnesium flares the lacework and pillars of limestone reflected back iridescent beauty in orange and white colours. Its unreality held the party spell-bound until the darkness took the place of the blazing light from the magnesium. To see this chamber alone was well worth the arduous journey.