Ian W Morris
The weather forecast heading into the weekend wasn’t that great, with Metservice predicting scattered showers clearing later in the day. It had rained recently and I knew the cliff face would be soft and slippery.
Sunday morning: sure enough, there were a few isolated showers but I still felt we had a good chance of making it down to Cathedral Cave.
I had made it clear from the outset that there was no guarantee we could get down the cliff to the beach, so I was pleased to see eighteen trampers at The Strand prepared to take the risk that we might have to abort the trip and do some Karekare tracks instead.
I had invited the West Auckland Tramping Club to join us, and a party of nine was waiting for us at the end of Log Race Road. A friend of mine brought the total number up to twenty-eight. Almost twenty people had never done this tramp before, so it was great to be able to show everyone just how magnificent Cathedral Cave is.
First up was the Mercer Bay Loop and past the lookout at Te Ahua Point for some great views south towards Whatipu.
A bit further around the loop, the unofficial track descends to the bay below. The clay surface, although marginal, looked okay, provided we took it carefully.
The purposely slow descent down the 160-metre cliff took the best part of an hour before everyone was down on the beach.There were three rope-assisted sections where we had to negotiate areas of bare rockface, but on the rest of descent there were generally enough bush roots and flax bush to hold onto and slow our descent.
Once on the beach, we entered an 80-metre sea cave that narrowed towards the middle, where it became pitch black with no clear view of the other end. When we did reach the end, the seawater was sweeping into the cavemouth and getting progressively deeper; the water reached to just below knee height.
A compulsory wade around the next corner of the rocks brought us into Cathedral Cave. Given the tide and time constraints, we went through the cave in three separate parties rather than waiting for everyone to get to the foot of the cliff. It’s a unique and majestic cave, and one that well justifies the difficult access to reach it. The ceiling is 165 metres-plus in height, and sunlight was streaming through the partial roof collapse over a rockface partially covered with green-and-yellow growth.
At a few minutes past low tide, it was time to retrace our steps. There is only a very limited window of opportunity to access the cave safely without the risk of being washed out to sea.
Everyone seemed well pleased to have participated in this tramp with a difference. It was a very satisfying day, with lots of great photo opportunities.