More Thoughts and Adventures: Diploma in Parks and Recreation, Nettlebed Cave expedition, management at the national level, 1985 ACKMA Conference

Diploma in Parks & Recreation Dissertation: ‘The Cave and Karst Resource of New Zealand’

My Diploma in Parks and Recreation dissertation described the national cave and karst resource and history of NZ cave exploration; biology, ecology, cave and speleothem (formations) forms and their development, along with the physical characteristics of caves and karst; conservation; preservation; and management; and included a list of caves and karst in National Parks, Reserves and State Forests along with recommendations as to caves and karst areas warranting protective status.

It also identified the NZ cave and karst resource as being of national significance; that land management agencies needed to be better informed; that Lands & Survey and NZ Forest Service (NZFS) should establish joint national cave and karst conservation and management policies; and described and recommended the adoption of an Australian cave and karst classification and management system.

It also recommended the protection of Mount Arthur and Mount Owen karst and caves, and the caves and karst of North Westland be investigated for consideration for reserve status; and that the Paparoa lowland forest caves and karst be declared a National Reserve. All largely managed by NZFS; identified caves on private land in the Waitomo area warranting protection; and that a permanent ranger be based at Waitomo.

I authored my dissertation to inform and to be a management tool for L&S National Parks and Reserves, NZFS, other Crown Land management agencies, and The New Zealand Speleological Society (NZSS), not to just sit on a shelf gathering dust.

Around this time, experienced and concerned cavers, including myself, were becoming more and more aware and alarmed by the damage caused by uncontrolled and unmanaged visitor use of some of our most scientifically and aesthetically significant, as well as general caves, particularly by large unaware and inexperienced groups.

Nettlebed Cave Mount Arthur, Northwest Nelson Forest Park and a Nnw Southern Hemisphere depth record

During Christmas/New Year 1980 I joined an expedition to Nettlebed Cave under Mount Arthur in Northwest Nelson Forest Park. Nettlebed resurges into the Pearse River (274m ASL) and had been dye-traced from Grange Slocker (1250m ASL), giving it a world-class depth potential of -976m.

Several top cavers had ‘pushed’ the cave upwards +276 metres and to a length of 6.6km from the Pearse River. Having negotiated the horrifically tight Hinking Horn Honking Hole squeezes and Jacob’s Ladder, a technical and difficult climb, beside a waterfall cascading down one wall of an enormous chamber, a ‘comfortable’ base camp was established further into the cave, aptly named ‘Salvation Hall’. However, consequent ‘pushes’ were stopped by a huge rockfall.

Taking up the story from Brian Joyce’s book ‘New Zealand Adventures’:

“Kevan Wilde, Trevor Worthy, Barry Were and Adrian Henderson, all of Hamilton, tackled the blockage and its human-size boulders. It was nerve-racking work for any moment the jumble of boulders could have given away”. “Using hammers and jemmy bars they clawed through squeezes between rocks, slowly worming their way up the rockfall. They laboured their way twisting their bodies through tortuous gaps until they forced their way through into a cavern at the top. The cavern was immense, and the unstable boulder-strewn floor steeply sloped upwards towards further unexplored regions of the cave”.

At the top of the rockfall, at +557m, we took the Southern Hemisphere depth record from PNG and brought it back to NZ. We returned for another expedition during Christmas/New Year 1982-83 with TVNZ and helped to make Sir Ian Taylor’s award-winning caving documentary ‘Two Days to Soft Rock Café’. A number of subsequent expeditions connected Nettlebed with Blizzard Pot, making it a classic world-class +/- 889m through trip.

What Inspired me about caving?

Bonding and sharing experiences with fellow cavers, adventure, excitement, fear, pushing oneself to the limit, sense of achievement, feeling at odds but also at times, at one with the cave environment, and the first to go where no one had ever gone before is what drove and motivated me for many years. I was a good caver, never an outstanding one.

I was lucky to be in the right places at the right times, with the right people. It also led me into conservation, cave & karst management and the Ranger service.

Cave & karst management at the national level 

When I was appointed as a ranger, I was a member of the Hamilton Tomo Group (HTG) and had been a member of the NZSS since 1972. In 1982 (?) I became a member of the Australasian Cave and Karst Management Association (ACKMA).  Also, around this time, I became Vice Chair of HTG and a member of the NZSS Council. Both of which became important in developing cave and karst conservation and recreation management policies that had the support of the NZSS and its member cavers before they were submitted to L&S, NZFS and the Tourist Hotel Corporation (THC) for their consideration.

The first NZSS policy adopted from my dissertation in response to in-cave and karst area damage was ‘A Basis for New Zealand  Cave & Karst Management’, an adapted version of the Australian classification system, co-authored in 1983 by myself and two prominent cavers and NZSS members, Ashley Cody and Dr Trevor Worthy.

The system proposed various classification levels and conditions of access. The conditions were based on current and potential recreational caver or other visitor impacts, combined with environmental, aesthetic, and scientific values versus their accessibility, vulnerability, and fragility. It also included gating and/or access by permitting, limitation on party numbers, and leadership of inexperienced caving parties by NZSS members.

It deliberately made no attempt to control cavers by assessed or perceived risk, as this was considered to be a personal choice to be made by party members and leaders based on difficulty, experience and skills. The system was then relatively easily accepted and adopted by the NZSS, who were opposed to land management agencies making access dependent on safety criteria.

The system was incorporated into the Waitomo Reserves Management Plan and formed the basis of the L&S ‘National Policy & Guidelines for Cave & Karst Management’; and is still largely in use by the Department of Conservation. Both the NZFS and the Tourist Hotel Corporation (THC) also adopted the system.

At the time the THC administered and managed the Waitomo Glowworm Cave and Ruakuri and Aranui tourist caves. These were major turning points in managing and conserving caves and karst on lands managed by Crown Land agencies.

1985 6th ACKMA Conference, Waitomo

 In 1985 I represented the Department and took a major part in the ACKMA 6th Conference on Cave and Karst Management held at the Waitomo Caves Museum and organised by the then THC Caves Manager Dave Williams.

I presented a Waitomo Karst and Cave Walkway proposal (see below) as a conference paper, as well as jointly presenting with Harri Rautjoki of NZFS the ‘General Policy for Cave and Karst Management In Areas Managed by the Department of Lands and Survey and the New Zealand Forest Service’. I also led a number of guided field trips.