, Auditorium
From April 14th to May 5th a joint US and Kiwi expedition set out to find and explore caves in three remote areas of karst in the northwest corner of New Zealand's South Island. Most of the longest (60 km+) and deepest (1,000 m+) caves in the country are found here. Lidar data for these outcrops recently became available, and has been intensely studied by Nic Barth, a California caver and geology professor at UC Riverside who completed his PhD at the University of Otago in Dunedin, NZ.
The first location is Sandy Peak, a 2-km square outcrop of Oligocene limestone bounded by cliffs and ranging in elevation from 1,377 m at the peak to just below 1,000 m with alpine and subalpine conditions at this latitude. This area is remote with no trails and will be accessed by helicopter. The second objective is karst along the famous Heaphy Track, and adjacent to legendary Mega Mania and Beyond Words caves with boreholes mazes, multiple rivers, giant moa bones and a dense temperate rainforest setting. The final objective in Arnold Creek above the Buller River. This area can be accessed by hiking into the mountains along a power line road. Lidar has revealed intense karst development here.
Joel Despain, Nic Barth, Carol Vesely, et al