Exploring from a base camp located 500 metres underground beneath the tussock slopes of Mt Arthur the Extreme cave team have made huge discoveries in a new cave system called Stormy Pot.
The team has recently discovered over 4 kilometres of new cave taking the length of the system to 6.5 kilometres and the depth down to 575 metres beneath the surface; the 6th deepest cave in NZ. Their discoveries also include the largest underground river in the mountain, rare crystal formations, bones of an extinct bird and numerous types of small cave dwelling animals including spiders.
With over 600 metres to drop from the limit of exploration to where the water emerges back into daylight, the cave is poised to become the deepest in the country.
The Extreme Cave team fresh from breaking the NZ cave depth record in 2010 by finding the first cave in the country to go over 1000 metres deep, are now gearing up to break the record once again in spectacular form. Assisted by a second grant from Sport NZ, the team found Stormy Pot, a new cave system high on the slopes of Mt Arthur in Kahurangi national park. This new system, made up of deep vertical shafts, huge chambers, big rivers and large railway tunnel shaped passages is now 6.5 kilometres long and 575 metres deep and has the potential to go down to a record breaking depth of 1200 metres.
During the summer of 2010/2011, the team made up of Aaron Gillespie, Kieran Mckay, Neil Silverwood, Troy Watson, Hiedi Godfrey and Chris Whitehouse planned to return to the 1000 metre deep system they explored on Mt Arthur the previous year.
On a recce trip to a different part of Mt Arthur, they got pinned down by a huge storm for 14 days. In gale force winds and rain they found two new vertical caves near the camp, one called Stormy Pot and the other called the Big Friendly Giant.
The two caves were quickly explored down 22 abseils, several climbs, through tight canyons and squeezes to a point 400 metres below the surface where they were both linked in a large horizontal streamway.
The team explored downstream climbing down spectacular waterfalls and wiggling through the occasional small spot. 2 kilometres from the entrance and 470 metres beneath the surface they were eventually stopped after running out of rope at the top of a 10 metre waterfall.
A second expedition back to the system was completed on the 20th of April by Troy, Kieran, Aaron and Neil. Nelson caver James Alker also joined the team for two days. The expedition was 14 days long, 5 days of which was spent exploring from an underground camp.
During the expedition that has just finished Stormy Pot lived up to its name once again with rain and snow making conditions on the surface miserable. Despite the inclement weather discoveries came fast and were truly world class. On a 13 hour long day trip the team explored on from the base of the waterfall which had stopped them during their summer expedition. Straight away a second 50 metre deep waterfall was discovered. Luckily a dry bypass was found which led the explorers away from the river and into ancient silent galleries where they explored tall canyons, large round tunnels and huge chambers with floors littered with boulders.
The weather eventually drove the team to camp underground and a camp was established in a dry, sand floored chamber 500 metres below the surface. From the camp the team explored and surveyed another 3.5 kilometres of new cave and also discovered rare crystal formations, cave dwelling creatures including tiny cave spiders and a huge river they called the “River of Clowns” which is the largest underground river on the mountain.
The lure of the unknown is very strong and we are returning in June to continue with the exploration of the River of Clowns. This is a very important passage as it is the “main drain” for the northern side of the mountain. The wind blowing down it indicates the presence of lower entrances and the water emerges from the cave system out of a large spring 3 kilometres away from the River of Clowns and over 600 metres lower.
The team has been very successful. Even though the success is ultimately due to the incredible individual talents in the team, we would not have achieved such results so quickly without the support from Sport NZ. Their grants have given us the ability to put NZ caving back onto the world scene and to show the rest of NZ that we have world class caving right here on our back doorstep.