CAVE AS HOLIDAY HOME

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31881, 8 January 1969, Page 12

CAVE AS HOLIDAY HOME

“The Press” Special Service DUNEDIN, Jan. 7.

A cave in the cliffs rising from an isolated bay near the entrance to the Otago Harbour is the holiday home of a man, four children and a cat.

The Dunedin family, Mr J. Lewis and his four children, Barbara, aged 14, John, aged 12, David, aged 10, and Julie, aged eight, moved into their stone-age home at Kaikai Beach on Christmas Day and intend staying there for another week.

“There are no rents to pay and it is nice and quiet,” Mr Lewis said when asked why he and his family preferred a

cave to a comfortable motel at a seaside resort. “A man’s home is his castle and I have the hills to protect it from noisy holiday-makers," he said, pointing to the hills which enclose the deserted beach.

Cave dwelling is nothing new for Mr Lewis and his two sons. "I have been coming over here since I was 10 years old,” he said, “but the boys have only stayed in the cave once or twice during weekends.” Bronzed and still wet after a swim in the surf, the boys

said they were enjoying their holiday and living in a cave was “great.” It is the first time the two girls have stayed in the cave and they like it because

“there isn’t much housework to do.” Barbara celebrated her fourteenth birthday on New Year's Day. “We had a Christmas pudding in place of a birthday cake, but I will have to wait until I get home before I receive my presents,” she said. The cave is about 20 feet long and 15 feet wide in the “living quarters," narrowing to 10 feet in the “bedroom.” Furniture, built from timber collected from the beach, consists of the bare essentials—a solid table, stool and cupboards.

“I'm also building a door at the entrance of the cave to keep the sheep out,” Mr Lewis said, “and the occasional vandal who finds the cave.” Mr Lewis was asked how he and his children spent their days.

’ “We fish and swim most of the time and intend to dig for Maori artifacts. We do just about everything tojgether.

“Time doesn't really matter. We eat when we are hungry and sleep when it’s dark.” Kaikai is Maori for plenty of food, and although it is thought that the origins of the name are in the dark ages of cannibalism, the supply of food is indeed plentiful. Fish—moki, kahawai, and rock cod—are available in abundance, as are mussels

and pauas on the rocks below Purehurehu Point. There are also plenty of crayfish off Heyward Point. “We eat a lot of fish, supplemented by a good stock of tinned foods.” Mr Lewis said. Three trips with provisions for the holiday were made a week before Christmas. Tinned food, soup, sugar, flour and salt were the main items.

“A holiday in a cave is fun. We have our own beach and I don’t have to shave,” Mr Lewis said. “I hope that we can do it again some time.”