VISIT TO A CAVE AT WANGAPEKA.

Colonist, Volume XIII, Issue 1285, 18 January 1870, Page 3

VISIT TO A CAVE AT WANGAPEKA.

A coebespondent, writing from Lower Wakefield, sends us the following particulars of a visit made by himself and others to a beautiful Cave in the Wangapeka district. He writes : — To the Editor of The Colonist. Sib, —In a recent issue of your valuable paper a description is given of a cave at Waipu, Auckland. But there is a cave at the head of Blue Creek, Waugapeka, a description of which will not, I think, be uninteresting to your readers. A party of four, having heird of these caves, started to explore them, taking with them a good supply of candles, and they reached the caves after a rather rugged journey of a mile-andhalf, having to climb and assist each other over stupendous boulders. On entering the mouth of the first cave candles were lighted, but nothing of interest met our gaze, as we were brought to a sudden stop by a rush of water. On emerging, we ascended higher up the gully, and found another entrance; but, like the first, water reigned supreme. Still ascending, we arrived at the one we were in search of. We fonnd a few initials cut at the entrance. A gallery brandies off at the entrance towards the left, and along this previous explorers had passed; hut our party took to the right, down a i steep sidling, where human foot had never left an I imprint. Stalactites, in all their varied forms, hung pendant from the roof, and glowworms shed their pbosphoresent light in various directions. Pushing on, we were brought to a stop by the roof, which suddenly lessened in height, to within eighteen inches | of the earth where we stood, the entrance being about eight feet wide. One of the party then voluuteered to crawl in, the others holding the lights, as a current of air was rushing through the aperture. After creeping snake fashion for the distance of ten feet, he emerged upon a platform, and then, being well supplied with matches, he lighted a candle, hailing us with the joyful intelligence that, where he stood, the roof was over twenty feet high. Following through tbi3 narrow passage in rotation, and then lighting our candles, the sight that met our gaze was truly enchanting. To the left, gradually sloping up, were rouud boulders heaped one upon the other in the shape of mounds, white as the driven snow. Keeping along the base of the mounds for about twenty yards, a passage opens out to the right, and having examined that part, we came back and explored to the left. There we found a vase, the delight and wonder of the whole party. In the vaulted roof hung a stalactite similar in shape to a bullock's heart, from which a drop of water fell into the centre of the vase every five seconds or so, the water being as clear as crystal, though anything but palatable. We agreed to return to the cave next day and to cut the vase off, which proved a work of no light labor, as it was so hard that it took a great amount of chiselling, ar.d being at the base full two feet io. diameter. On removing it we computed it to weigh about 4 cwt. As the inside is the shape of an egg-ended tumbler, we reduced the outside in conformity to the inner side. It then weighed over 2\ cwfc. The question then arose as to how we were to get it out of the cave ? Visitors, who came to see it, shook their heads in doubt, but perseverance overcame the difficulty. We put it into two bags, and netted it round with a rope, then made fast a guy rope to that; two men ascended the sloping mounds, securingtheirfeetfirmly against the boulders, the other two men rolling the package as far as the rope allowed. That done, the men below held it until the men above went a-head and secured themselves again. With many a scramble and slip, the aperture above described was reached. Another difficulty then arose through the vase proving too large for the low passage. Finding the floor to be softer than the roof, a channel had to be cut, and that being done, we rolled it through. The rope was put in requisition again, and it was brought safely to the mouth of the cave. We then slung it on a pole, four men carrying it, a pioneer being a-head. Before' getting into Blue Creek, we had to make the rope fast around trees, so as to slip it down the embankments. The road was so rugged it took us nearly four hours to carry it to the township, a distance of one and a half miles. Mr. Bumford packed it on horseback to the edge of the bush, a distance of twelve miles, and from thence in his bullock dray to Wakefield.