Abbey Caves

Calla Lilies growing in limestone outcrop

Andrew and I had the chance to explore Abbey Caves in Whangerei, Northland. They are undeveloped caves and are part of a nice easy 2 kilometer walk through fields with giant limestone boulders. The boulders have been nicely carved over the centuries of rainfall to have some beautifully interesting shapes.

Rock formation in Organ Cave

We weren't sure entirely what to expect since each cave is different. We thought at first that these would be somewhat similar to the lava caves that we explored on Rangitoto, but we were quite wrong. There were three caves: the Organ cave, the Middle Cave, and the Ivy cave. Andrew made the joke of "A musician, a botanist, and an engineer are asked to name some caves...".

Andrew looking into the water

Striated Limestone in Middle cave

The first cave we went into was the Organ Cave. It took a little bit of climbing to get into the cave and I was quite glad for Coach Dallas's climbing lessons in Regina. I was using my arms almost as much as my legs while climbing into the cave since I couldn't reach down the boulders half the time. The Organ cave was quite high and easy to walk along once we got into it. There was a bit of a creek running through it, which would be why the local advice we got said to be very careful if we were going when there had been recent rainfall and not to go on a day when rain is forecast.The water was only about ankle deep.  The caves were quite deep as well. The Organ cave took us about 45 minutes round trip. We could have walked further, but we reached a point where we couldn't tell how deep the water was and decided to turn around. We ran into a few people who had been in the cave before us and htey actually waded and swam a lot deeper than we were willing to.

Rock formation in Middle Cave

We noticed a few glowing specks on the walls and decided to turn off our lights to see what we could see. The first thing I noticed was that it was absolutely pitch black. Even on a clear night in a rural area there is enough light to see at least something, but I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face in the cave with our lights off. Then looking up it was almost like being under a starry sky...there were glow worms! They were really neat to see.

Climbing in Ivy Cave

Limestone Outcrops

We climbed out and then walked to the next cave: the Middle cave. This cave was a lot shallower, shorter, and the water wasn't nearly as deep. There were some really neat rock formations in the Middle cave that made it really obvious that the minerals in the water were building up the rock at the same time it was eating away some of it. There was a narrow section that we had to climb around and crawl through. There was also a point near the end of the cave where we could see light and Andrew actually climbed out of the cave to the surface before scrambling back in. We also found an eel in the water.

Water drops forming rock the rock

Wading through the Ivy Cave

Limestone in the farm fields

The Ivy cave was an entirely different beast. Climbing into it was quite difficult with large slippery boulders and very steep sections. Once we were in the cave it wasn't entirely clear which path would actually go through. I finally found a path by following the water and crawling down a somewhat steep slope until the cave opened up into a standing height cave again. It took us almost 90 minutes to explore the Ivy Cave. We reached a point where the water was about waist deep and decided that we could change when we got back to the campervan and that it wouldn't matter much if we got wet. I waded into the water and it slowly got deeper and deeper. I managed to find the shallower bits, but Andrew accidentally found a deep hole while he was following me. He suddenly found himself a fair bit past his waist! There were also a few glow worms low enough on the cave walls that we could shine our flashlights and look at them. They were really thin silky worms that glowed a little bit when there was no light on them. It was really cool.