Maitai Caves. Organiser: Robyn Walsh (for Ted Brooks)
Ted was not going to be in Nelson this week, so I agreed to lead this tramp for him. Just a small group of six met at 9am at the Church Steps on this Waitangi Day morning. In two cars we arrived at the Maitai Dam road-end. The group posed for a photo then we headed back along the road, crossed the Maitai on the Caretaker's Bridge to walk along the Water Intake Loop Track. The day didn't seem too hot yet with the odd cloud patch dimming the sun, but it wasn't long before we all started to feel the heat even inside the bush. Humid too. The group really enjoyed the bush and were very interested to know the names of a few of the many bush and tree varieties in the forest.
At 10.40am, after a pleasant amble, we arrived at the traditional morning tea stop where the track branches to the Dun. After consuming our snacks, we carried on in the barren rocky mineral belt beside Schlanders Creek, then back into more lush forest with occasional good views down to the river. We saw the odd wasp and one nest only, which wasn't too bad. We passed many huge majestic trees along the way and as the track began veering left up the hill towards the caves, there were some very good track markers pointing us in the right direction, also indicating the other possibilities up here. Just before we arrived at the cave entrance at 12pm, taking a wrong zig zag had us face to face briefly with several stinging nettle plants.
Before lunch we had a quick look just inside the cave entrance but only Steven, the geologist, went right down to the cave floor to try and find out where the sound of the underground river was really coming from. We had lunch
near the cave entrance with a much needed breeze. Steven spent most of his lunch drawing a diagram on how rocks are formed below the earth's crust!
We packed up and began the return at 12.50pm taking only 30 minutes to arrive back at the morning tea place. A 15 minute stop here for refreshments and to enjoy the cooling sound of the river as it was now very hot again. We continued on, staying on the true left of the river hoping for more shade here than along the road as by now out in the sun it was really hot. We had only a few shade patches but we also had a nice strong breeze. We arrived back at the cars at 2.35pm. All agreed it was quite an oustanding walk and a magical day. On the walk were: Joe and Marilyn Gibbons (ex Tulsa and Perth), Ruth and Tony Draaijer, Steven White, Robyn Walsh.