A VALLEY OF CAVES.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 December 1924, Page 8

A VALLEY OF CAVES.

THE TE KUITI DISCOVERY. STREAMS LOST IN MYSTERY. WONDERFUL GLOMWORM CAVERN.

The glowworm cave, gorge and waterfall discovered recently in and near the Mangawhitikau Valley, 12 miles from Te Kuiti, were again visited by an exploring party last week, and the original impression of the unique beauty of the discoveries was fully confirmed. The party was led by Mr. W. J. Broadfoot, president of the New Zealand Tourist League.

The first discovery visited was what may be called ‘•the fall of the cylinder.” It is a shaft or “tomo,” to use the. Maori term, situated on the slope of one of those steep-sided little glens with which this limestone country abounds. Tomos are very often found in them, but “the cylinder,” besides other peculiarities, is the only one known to contain a fall. Below its mouth, which is hidden in a thicket of bushes, is the mouth of a pit, one side of which presents a steep but practicable descent into a rock-walled chamber lined with moss, ferns and five-finger, and humid with trickling water and the spray from the fall. This is not the cylinder, but merely the ante-chamber which gives access to it.

On the far side the wall of this pit is split from top to bottom by a narrow cleft, through which the water can be seen pouring over the edge above and falling in a cloud of spray down the smooth side of a vertical shaft. A sort of chute slopes sharply through the cleft until it ends altogether, close to a narrow tunnel on the right.

INTO THE BOWELS OF THE'EARTH.

At first the explorers got no further than this, but last weke the tunnel was entered and was found to speedily terminate above a yawning crevasse. An adventurous pioneer, who was lowered into this at the end of a rope, reported reaching the floor of the cylinder at the bottom of the fall, where the stream vanished down a subterranean passage. He waded down this for several chains without reaching any finality. The volume of the stream Is small, but a fraction of the diameter of the cylinder, which it probably carved out after originally fall ng many ages ago into the now empty antechamber. It was then probably a much larger body of water and wore away the wall of the pit until the cleft was formed, aud it reached its present curiously fascinating habitat. To find a place more weird than this, with its wet round walls of whitishIgrey stone half hidden by spray and echoing to the splash and rumble of the falls one might search the whole country in vain. Where the stream goes is a mystery likely to remain unsolved.

Beyond the cylinder the glen is walled by rugged cliffs, honeycombed with !caves, holes and blind passages. One cavern is about 40ft. high by as many Iyards long, with natural arches and windows -into the open a ; r. Ferns and nwFS carpet the fl« or and spring from crevices in the weathered walls and tall five-finger saplings further soften the rugged grandeur of this impressive place. Bard -by is the entrance to u series of galleries, once used by the Maoris as a burial place, but now blocked with piles of heavy stones.

THE VALLEY TO THE CAVE. The glowworm cave is reached by wading down the. stream, nowhere mon> than three feet deep. The sides of the gorge or canyon are at first low, but [gradually grow higher, and the steep hillsides alternate with towering cliffs anil jutting crags in numberless fantas- [ tie forms.

The roar of a fall announces that the glowworm cave is close at hand. A i huge pile of tumbled rocks and timber lies in the way, but the stream plunges over and under it, and runs calmly, but swiftly, into the cavern, where the grand walls soar up 70ft. or 80ft. until a vaulted roof blots out the narrow strip of blue sky above. It is a most impressive entrance, touching the mind with wonder and awe.

Soon, in the increasing darkness, a tiny point of light announced the presence of glowworms, and when an angle hid the last glimmer of daylight the vaulted roof was soon thick-massed with the insects’ myriad lamps. The explorers landed on a pebbly beach against the cavern wall, for the water was too deep for further wading. A battery of electric torches was clubbed together, and a reel of magnesium ril-bon was burned, but the cave appeared to end in a blank wall, with no visible exit for the stream.