THE LIMESTONE CAVES OF WAIAU.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1855, 19 February 1889, Page 3

THE LIMESTONE CAVES OF WAIAU.

A lady correspondent of the Southland T'mes forwards to that journal an account of a trip to these caves, from which we make the following extracts “ When we turned off below Eastern Bush and entered the Limestone Gorge I thought I had never seen such a beautiful sight, and one of our party said he had seen many a pretty gorge in New Zealand, but this, with its great limestone rocks, was the grandest of them all. In some places, high above your bead you could see other little gorges, and tremendous rocks, looking as though they would detach themselves and roll down. We reached the caves about noon, and the gentlemen having made korati holders for our candles, we all prepared to follow Mr Wm. Mitchell, who had kindly come a long way to act as our guide. . . . The entrance to o ,the cave is a large one,

but leaving that, for a hundred yards or so, one has a regular scramble over rocks, sliding, and altogether rough travelling; and oh ! didn’t I sigh for my shoe leather and wish that I had put on an old pair of boots, as I thought those I had on would be torn off my feet. After the first stage we kept emerging into great lofty caves with floor and walls in places as white as driven snow, and I could not imagine a more beautiful sight than tins, all lit up by our candles. Sometimes I coulu scarcely believe it was a reality, but thought I was in a dream, or in some fairy scene with snow-white and sparkling stalactites hanging from the roof and walls, some of them just glistening in the candle light. But to leave the poetical, and proceed with the prac* tical, we went in, I am told, a distance of about half a mile, and then we could go no further, being stopped by the famous and tremendous well. An expert conld, I believe, get past the well and go on for miles if he were not afraid of getting lost, and Mr Mitchell told us we could go much further in another direction, but it was not safe travelling for ladies. It is impossible for me to give a really good and vivid description of the well and the last cave we were in. From the cave I speak of there is a narrow passage or opening like a doorway, and before the opening is the well. Our party amused themselves by throwing into the well large stones, and I never heard such a noise in all my life —it was like the report of a cannon with a tremendous echo. Some of the gentlemen climbed the rocks, and created all sorts of sounds by tapping some projecting pieces. Sometimes it sounded like a dinner gong, aud again it reminded me of an alarm I heard once in a play, ©f which one of the scenes was a besieged city. Having amused ourselves until tired with this music and with throwing stones into the well, we got our names carved on the walls, and started on the return journey, collecting stalactites as we went. These we found very difficulty to carry, as, the way being rough, it is almost impossible to get them out in unbroken beauty. When we got back to the outer world we found we had been in the caves a little more than two hours.”