Hidden Wonders in the Dark Te Anga, North Island, New Zealand
By earthlight on 07-Mar-18. Waypoint GC7K88H

TFTC Great Spot

Thanks for the earth cache here! It was enjoyable exploring the cave!

As It's earthcache weekend, matagouri and I decided to head to the Waitomo caves/ marokopa area to grab a selection of caches, including this one. It's an area i haven't been to for a while, and I certainly haven't been much beyond the main touristy cave before, so it was great to be able to explore a new place.Our phone torches proved to be perfectly adequate here, as we made our way down and checked out the interior. Thanks for setting this up here

Out around Waitomo and Marokopa with rattll, today. We picked our way down into the cave, flashing our torches around while we collected the data. A hidden gem that I'd not known of previously, thanks for bringing me here, and a fav point. Answers sent to the CO. Tftc!

What a wonderful cave, for me and Birba68 this cave was the highlight of the day. Thank you!

DragonDefender (DD) and I were on our way out towards Marakopa today checking on some of my caches and picking up a few others.While I was doing owner maintenance on my cache at the cave I decided to do this Earthcache.Cheers for the cache, earthlight.

4-week family trip through NZ - Find #47!A small, but interesting cave. We looked around quite a bit, and managed to take some decent photos, thanks to a helpful flashlight .TFTEC!

Such a hidden gem. This cave is very cool. Just standing at the bottom and just looking around at the interesting rock formations. The kids loved it too. Answers sent to C.O.TFTC

TFTC - this is such an awesome cave! We all loved the short walk here and loved being inside the cave taking photos

During our stay in New Zealand we also visited the Waitomo Caves and also this cave.Cool that it is freely accessable.Aswers are sent, thanks for creating this geocache,greetings from team Camperfietser

While visiting this cave I have tried to figure out the answer. I did bring a torch, but the batteries failed as I started to look around. Note to other geo-cacahers - this is a big cave Anyway, I have sent my answers to EO. TFTC. My find no. 8.149.

The cave was spectacular. The stairs great, we spoke to another couple who had been there 40 years ago when there was no formed trail and theyd slid down the mud on their bums. Answers sent. Tftec

A stunning location for an earthcache and we really enjoyed venturing into the cave (not MrsB's favourite thing to do although she found some courage!). The rock formations are amazing and this is definitely a must visit if you are in the area. Answers emailed to cache owner - thanks for placing!

Found - Mrs McMike2012 & I now live full-time in our caravan & travel the country visiting places we want to visit … we are currently parked up at the NZMCA Site in Otorohanga … decided we’d go for a drive & do an Ad Lab at Waitomo & then drive out to the coast, stopping at the Piripiri Caves & the Marakopa Water Fall … thought we might as well do a couple of caches while out this way … the answers to the questions have been ‘messaged’ to the Cache Owner, we’ll log this pending the all clear … pleased to add another 'smiley face' to the tally … TFTC ... TN except photos:LN not even footprints:S no L ... #4,437 for us!

Second to last day with sister who is visiting from overseas so a visit to Waitomo Caves had been prearranged and then we decided to take a drive.

The drive here was a little further than we had expected but the scenery was nice. I had come prepared with torches. We had a great time exploring here.

Answers have been sent to CO.

Thanks for bringing us here.

We've been here before, many years ago, so it was nice to stop again. Thanks for the earth cache!

Been in the Te Kuiti area for a couple of days and taking the long way home home to New Plymouth. Really enjoyed the drive and the caches along here. Thanks for this earthcache.

[1295]

This was the last cave we visited on our trip to Waitomo. Was good to explore on our own and we spent at least a 1/4hr here to rest our legs from the walk here and to shine our torch around to see what we could see.
Answers sent to CO TFTEC

Was hard to leave the local holiday park and the pool we’d been swimming in but with the promise of more caves and a waterfall we were rearing to go again. This one was cool..nice and quiet and dark! We were trying to imagine what was around those corners in the darkness...
Answers sent via trayc.g.
TFTC

Answers sent to owner.
been a while since I was last hear. Cleaning up unfound caches in the region. Number 6 of 6 today.
Thanks for the education

Day 5 of a road trip with Saethwr around the lower North Island. Caching not a priority, but we will get a few.
Waitomo.
After a morning in the commercial caves we headed west. This was one of just a few which had been saved to the phone. Buggar - we missed a few but still had a great day.
Being in a camper we had the necessary equipment, it was just a case of remembering where we had stashed the torches.
This was the last stop of the day - thought the cave would be a dirtier experience than in was. What nearly did me in was the steps. This brought the equivalent flights of stairs for the day to 45!
Answers sent off and permission to log granted.

Thanks for the smilie earthlight.
2728 20 January 2021

Placeholder until I can send the info through not on my mobile phone!

This is such an amazing spot.
We found the nearby traditional cache and heard a lot of voices coming from the cave so were disappointed to not have peace and quiet to really take in the atmosphere but fortunately the large group left shortly afterwards and we got our wish and had the cave to ourselves.
Such a majestic cavern and an amazing piece of nature.
Answers sent.
Thanks earthlight for a great Earthcache.

Logged with permission thanks earthlite Thought I had logged this earlier and found I was looking at the trad so it was good to complete this wonder cache gets a fave TFTC

Armed with a torch we set off. Got halfway along the track and husband saw the stairs and turned back as his back was already giving him hell, so I carried on by myself. Met a couple coming down who told me it was not really worth the effort to see the caves. I smiled nicely and said thank you but I have come this far. I did not want to tell them that I was geocaching and had to continue. I found the traditional cache first while I had the place to myself then went to the tunnel entrance. That's when I realised husband had the torch. TFTC

Lovely day for a Waikato road trip. It has been many years since I have been here. Awesome cave.
TFTC

After visiting the Natural Bridge down the road we stopped at the Piripiri caves and had the place to ourselves. It was a pretty epic place. We could see the cave went deeper and further and it would've been great to explore more but not being a cave expert avoided temptation Answers have been sent to CO, TFTC!

Another awesome place to stop on our journey out to the coast.

Has the place to ourselves for most of our time in there. Cool spot. Answers to follow TFTC

My second or third trip to this cave. One day I will bring a decent torch.

Although we arrived at midnight, we were determined to discover the hidden wonders here. Fortunately, our head torches helped us out. Answers sent to CO. Thank you for bringing us to this fabulous place.

A nice little stroll to the cache and visit to the cave. We only wish we could have gone further into the cave.
TFTC and greetings from Australia

Wow, impressive. Did not expect such a huge cave there. Thanks for showing. Good to have always a torch by hand when caching. TFTC

What a great spot and great cache.
TFTC MS Scout

Found as a part of a previous group TanjackMüley, aka WanderingSparrow. Now I'm continuing on my own. TFTC

This cache was such a hidden gem. We were in the cave with our mouths open astonished by its beauty for half an hour. We are glad we stopped here to do both these caches. Thanks for placing the earth cache here earthlight!

On our way to Kiritehere beach to go fossil hunting and stopped here on the way.
Such a treat to be able to enter such a fascinating cave. We loved the "melted" look of some of the formations.
A few stairs up and down to reach this spot, but nothing too strenuous.

We are into the last day of a mission to collect enough earthcaches to complete the requirements of a challenge cache that we signed in Portland a few weeks ago. Today we are travelling from Gordonton to Turangi, taking a very scenic route. Step two was a detour out past Waitomo to explore this Hidden Wonder. This is a very interesting cave, well worth the drive out, and something that we would never have discovered if not for the earthcache. Answers have been sent to CO.

Thanks for bringing us here, and helping us to fulfill the challenge.

(I apologise for the late log but the date is accurate)
Found today with the help of TwigNZ while we were up in Waitomo for a holiday of sorts. I had a great time finding this earthcache and thanks for placing it. TFTC

(See TwigNZ's log for my qualifications)

School holidays, plus the combination of public holidays and 3 days leave means I get to take my lad on a road trip. This time we have chosen Waitomo to be our destination, and today was our first full day here having arrived yesterday evening.

So having had a good rest after the long drive yesterday, I figured that a more relaxed day was on the cards and how better to make use of the wonderful autumn weather than to go exploring the local area? So we decided to go to the Marokopa Falls first and then make our way back to Waitomo from there.

The wonderful thing about Geocaching is that you are tempted to make an excursion to somewhere you may not have been bothered to, and discover something totally wonderful when you get there. This was definitely the case today. The lad and I had so much fun exploring all the wonders to be seen, both above ground and below. Just as well we were wearing clothing we didn't have to worry about lol!

We loved these caves, and stopped to take a ton of photos here. My lad has never been spelunking before, and in spite of the desire for safety he was super keen to go further. We were able to look around the caves at our leisure as there was no-one else around which was great.

Thanks for the adventure and the memories.

Out with the McArgister whānau on a road trip from Auckland. It was a drizzly day but we braved the conditions for some adventures. We had our sandwiches in the car before heading into the woods for this cave. Micro McArgister’s little legs struggled with some of the steep steps but we got there and enjoyed the experience of being in the cave. We gathered the info that I hope is correct then headed back. Thanks for setting up the earth cache. We might not have found some of these natural wonders without the COs setting up caches of various forms to entice me in!

Log to come

Tftc,have sent answers, awesome cave and walk,remember your torch

With Lemmer in New Zealand at amazing caches. Thank you for showing all that beautiful places. flatrate

Great cave wonderland. Thx

A day to travel and try some of the caches around Waitomo. Nice to find a little bit of coolness in the cave. A brighter torch would have been better but we still managed to find some interesting features.

Answers have been sent to the CO.

Thank you for placing the earthcache and bringing us here.

On a caching adventure, and do a bit of caving fun too

So here I am in the cave looking for answers! which have been sent to the CO.

Thanks for the hide, a few steps, but got here in the end.

We decided to visit Waitomo on the way home from doing the Northern circuit. This was the last of our earth caches before we headed for home after a full day out. Impressive display of stalactites and stalagmites.

19401Dec 28, 20184:53:32 PM
I have sent the answers to CO.
I wish I had had my headlight with me so that I could go for the room.
Just one good a FP

Thanks earthlight for another cool find.
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Some say geocaching at night is geocaching done right

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.TFTC . ((__)
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Yebo earthlight

Being on a tiki tour with muggle friends we have a good time as they learned that with geocaching one could and can be guided to utmost interesting places

The cave was a fun moment for all of us and we did enjoy for a moment ourselves there on our own before a bus of other tourists joined us

Answers had been sent

TftEarthCache

Found at 19:32.

Our second trip to New Zealand. This time we explore the North Island for 3 weeks. This was one cache we found.

This was one of these treasure you only find because of geocaching. Thanks!

Thank you for placing and maintaining this cache earthlight

TFTC

This was the start of quite the adventure in that in the company of HKCB, Alpenmilch80 & slieschke we had planned out first tramp of the season after us all having had so much on for the past few months we needed a blow out.
So plans were hatched and a walk was intended with the late inclusion of a slieschke whom had flown in from Toronto to join us while here for work.
We set out early and headed for this earthcache after completing both Double and Tawarua Falls. It was great to visit here again after so many years as I can still recall when you could wander throughout this entire cave system prior to the rock fall about 70m past the current viewing platform.
Thanks for bringing us back to a place long forgotten

After a nearby adventure visiting a couple of waterfalls with Cats&Dragons, Alpenmilch80, and slieschke we finished the adventure off with a cave, and an EC for the souvenir available this weekend. Have visited here before, so it was nice to revisit. Thanks for the geology lesson.

Cats&Dragons and HKCB’s plan to explore the area had me interested from the minute they told me about it. Plans were made for the weekend and a last-minute addition included in form of a Canadian visitor slieschke. After spending an amazing time at the Double and Tawarau Falls we made our way over to venture into the cave. Enjoyed our time at GZ exploring the cave. TFTC

didnt plan to come this far so arrived here with co ords but no details as no cellphone coverage. we did have our boots and a torch so headed up the track. great cave to explore. thanks

On our last day in New Zealand we woke up early to go to the glow worm cave tour. It was a fun but ultimately very short tour. After that we decided to go to the waterfall nearby and very much enjoyed it. This was one of the stops on our way back and it was quick and interesting. Thanks for the Earthcache and greetings from Utah, USA and South Korea. 어스캐시 설치해주셔서 감사합니다.

I was prepared, but not enough. My Black Diamond Spot was not strong enough to lighten the cave. So I just got an idea of the whole thing. But it was worth it. Thank you for the cache!

During my travel through the North Island I could find this Cache
Great wee cave
TFTC

We were here a little while ago on our way through to Marokopa so we stopped of here on the way to see the cave. A quick little walk from the road and a nice entrance to the cavern below where we had a good look around. Thanks for the placement here.

It was already afternoon when we arrived the cave carpark. We grabbed our torches and were amazed what to see. We had it all for ourselves. No one around. This area seems like swiss cheese with all it's caves.
Thanks for showing! Tftc

We were visiting this cave today on our trip through NZ. It’s a bit of a windy road but well worth it. Thanks for providing this Earthcache.

The first time we ever visited here was many years ago, we followed a muddy track, well off the "tourist trail" with a rickety old sign saying "visit at your own risk". Needless to say, we didn't do much exploring back then. The bush track and new stairs, being recently improved, now make this another interesting free place to visit, away from the maddening crowds at the more popular Waitomo caving areas.
We were second to find the cache that used to be hidden inside this cave. Thanks for creating an earthcache here. TFTC. Answers sent.

Loved doing this earthcache
Had a torch with us so able to atch all the beauty within
Definately worthy of a visit and a favourite point
Tftc

Had to stop here after locating the 'traditional' that is nearby. It was about mid-afternoon on a dull day so the interior was quite gloomy; it looked as though there may be a good glowworm population but probably not dark enough for me to see them. No pin-points of light! The access and viewing platforms inside the cave are firstrate. Thanks earthlight!

[STF]

Found it while visiting the gems in the area. TFTC!

Published

Log later. [FTF]