Craig and I drove to Charleston where we met Pip and Kieran and stayed at the caver’s hut. Pip sprung a cave on us the following day which turned out to be a very good day out.
We did the nearby Te Tahi Cave, a 20 minute drive from the hut in Charleston. The track took us down from the shingle road into the bush and down some steps to a large round sink hole.
There was a group ahead of us and they had already set up a line descending down into the hole. Craig went first disappearing down the 40 metre drop. I followed, using my figure 8 to descend the rope. I could see Craig below holding the rope loosely to “bottom belay” me if needed. There was no need but as expected my figure 8 was too hot to handle as I touched down. The silhouette of Pip became visible above us and it wasn’t long until we were all standing at the bottom of the circular hole.
We started into the cave. It was mostly dry with some mud to give us that caving feeling. We spent the next 2+ hours in the cave. First we headed towards the far exit. This took us through areas with stalactites and pretty coloured rocks.
We then reversed and headed back through the cave taking a different turn that took us upstream. This involved climbing up waterfalls and wriggling through a very tight passage. We emerged from a side passage into a much larger part of the cave with little yellow ropes to guide us along the way. Following the rope took us towards the surface and we could finally see daylight above.
This exit didn’t require anything but some scrambling for us to get out.
