Cave Stream

I had another weekend of mostly doing homework (the work is definitely starting to pile up), but on Sunday afternoon Thomas, Kaelyn, Bryn, and Malene were planning on going to Cave Stream, which, as you can guess, is a cave with a steam running through it. Although it’s not a difficult walk, everything I’d read about it online said to make sure to wear warm water resistant clothes or a wet suit because the water can be freezing cold and that you shouldn’t go in if it’s been raining or the water is too high to walk through. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day, so we didn’t have to worry about the water being too high, but I was still a little nervous that I would freeze to death. Little did I know, this would actually be one of the coolest study breaks I’ve ever taken.

Thomas borrowed his family’s car and we left for the hour and a half drive to the Cave Stream Scenic Reserve in the Arthur’s Pass area. First we stopped at the Warehouse, a store kind of like Walmart, to buy headlights since they are necessary to go through the pitch black caves. After we arrived at Cave Stream we walked down to the entrance of the cave, which is actually the outlet of the steam because it is recommended that you walk upstream for safety reasons.

Walking down to the cave entrance

Cave entrance

We first walked into the water and it was pretty cold, but not as bad as I was expecting.  Just a few steps into the cave we could feel the temperature drop considerably, and pretty soon we were in pitch black, so the headlights came in very handy.  The first bit was one of the deepest sections, where the water came up above my waist.  The rest of the time, the water was usually around our ankles to up to our knees or a little higher.

It was really amazing to walk through the dark caves, see the different ways the water had shaped the rocks, and listen to the rushing water.  A couple times we stopped to turn off our headlights and just stand in the pitch black and listens to the water, which was a cool experience.  About a quarter of the way through the cave, Malene said that she wished she had brought her GoPro because none of us had brought our phones to take pictures since they could easily get wet. We all agreed that the water was not as cold as we expected, and walking through the winding cave was actually really fun, so we were happy to go a second time.

Towards the end of the cave, there were a couple small waterfalls that we had to climb up.  One was slightly more difficult because there weren’t really rocks to easily step up on and every time you put your foot up, the water was strong enough to push it off.  But, all five of us made it up and eventually got to the exit of the cave, where we had to climb up a small ladder and crawl under some rocks to get out.  Overall it took us about 45 minutes to go through the cave.  We walked back up towards the car, rested for a couple minutes and dried off a bit in the sun, and then headed back down to the entrance again.

The second time we went through we went a bit faster, but we took more time to stop along the way.  We were able to find a couple of spots to climb up the rocks or go a different way, and Malene was able to get some footage on her GoPro.  If I can get some of that video I will post it later on.  We got back out of the cave and spent some time drying off.  I walked back down to the cave entrance to take some pictures since I couldn’t take any inside.  I brought another pair of leggings so I was glad to change into dry clothes, and then we headed back towards campus, stopping along the way to grab dinner.

This was one of the coolest places that I have been and one of my favorite experiences in New Zealand so far. It felt like I was walking through a man-made cave at Disney World or something, so it’s amazing to think that it was created completely naturally by the stream over millions of years. Now, I just have to see how long it will take my sneakers to dry out- they’re definitely very clean now!