ONCE WASTE SPACE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 27, 1 August 1939, Page 7

ONCE WASTE SPACE

NOW FAIRYLAND #

WAITOMO CAVES

MAIN SHOW NEARLY READY

Partial construction frequently gives little hint of an achieved enterprise, but while this may be true of many parta of the Centennial Exhibition, there are some outstanding portions of the great national show from which a good idea of their ultimate appeal may be obtained. This is particularly so in th« case of the Waitomo Caves feature.

There is not the slightest couot that when the Exhibition is filled by a crowd astounded by its magnitude, its admirable layout, and the tremendous variety' of attractions, one of the most popular attractions will be these caves. The amazing thing is that what was really an afterthought should have been developed into a brilliant major feature of such a big show. In the beginning the caves were merely so much waste space under the flooring on the southern side of the main block. This space might never have been utilised but for the conception of the contractors to make valuable use of it. There is at the most nine feet between floor and ground level. This alone would not have permitted of the almost "life-size" model of the caves which is now nearing completion. The National Park montain group, in the centre of the Dominion Court, however, added many feet of overhead space, because though the group will give the effect of permanent rock and ice, it is hollow. AN ENCHANTING MAZE. The use that has been made of this combined space is most ingenious. Inside, levels are disguised until the visitor is convinced that he is deep underground, while in reality he is not far below floor level. The caves form a maze that is as intriguing as it is beautiful. The main caves cover a considerable area. The stalagmites and stalactites are now nearly all in position. There are hundreds of them, and even with the trial lighting, the effects are enchanting. Clever use has b^en. made of the overhead space to show caverns in the distance behind bold silica formations on the ground level. Quite a number of visits have been paid to the real caves by the builders during the work, and the endeavour to reproduce the most beautiful natural formations, has been carried out with credit to them. Lighting will of course play an important part. Where the colouring of the walls and grottoes is not achieved by pigments, it will be, given by special lighting, and from what can now be seen of such possibilities, the results will b« eminently satisfactory.

Where space has not permitted of full-sized replicas of famous features of the caves, delicate reproductions, like small recessed chapels, each adequately illuminated to bring out the fine detail, are inserted here and there. The main caves will give a tremendous impression when they are finally passed as complete, but the tortuou3 way to the glow-worm cave has its own features. The winding nature of the caves has been taken advantage of to give suddenly-presented scenes of fairy-like enchantment, and one will arrive all too soon at the spot where boats are taken for the glow-worm caves. Throughout the caves the roof is an inverted forest of icicle-like silica, strikingly beautiful even in its present stage, until the glow-worm, caves are reached. HOW THE GLOW-WORMS GLOW. Here there is a dividing of the ways. Those who are pressed for time will go out to the Exhibition again by the fernery; others will take their places, seated, in the boats, which will move with a slow, silent current under the glow-worms, in darkness. While the eeriness of the whole cave trip will be impressive, this part of it will amaze the visitors at the lifelike nature of the roof. The undulating roof is spangled with millions of groups of tiny illuminations. There has been much thought to reproduce the actual colour of the glows. At. one spot there is what m?.y ultimately be accepted as the correct colour, a greenish blue phosphorescence. How this has been achieved remains a secret; the effect is all that could be wished.

All is nearly ready for a trial of the mechanically-driven stream and the boats. One of the reasons why patrons must sit is that the stalactites there are lower than in the other parts of the caves. Emerging into daylight very gradually, visitors come to the fernery, another attractive utilisation of waste space. Even in its unfinished condition, it is the sort of thing that will be a delight to visitors from overseas and Australia. The rock work is a marvel of skill, a mere tracery of jagged stones, in curving columns and arches which seem to defy gravity. The fernery is not large, but space has been found for miniature bridges, streams, and a waterfall flowing from a winking pool which literally seems to hang by its eyelids. Weaving over the cavelike ceiling are stout ropes of fibre, covered with climbing ferns. The fernery has been built to give entrancing glimpses through fern-clothed arches. A fine mist plays over one corner where the light from the windows gives an iridescent haze.