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With a surprising approval for leave I managed to find myself down in Nelson for a weekend trip. Motivated to get deep underground I contacted a local friend to organise a quick spelunking adventure. I was promptly introduced to an idea of pushing through large sections of Bulmer Cavern in a single continuous trip. Those versed in the alpine scene may be familiar with long, 24-hour plus, trips where large objectives require an element of perseverance and a large amount of stoke. This was by no means a standard trip into Bulmer as most parties generally stay at one of the established “campsites” in the cave. Our intention was to start at the Owen river carpark, hike to the entrance of Castle Keep, enter the cave and navigate through a series of contacted sections, before exiting at the Eye in the Sky entrance, and finally hiking back down to the car. A trip that we anticipated would take 24-hours, if not longer.

Photos from Xanadu, Kubla Khan and Golf Course caves on the West Coast of New Zealand.

After the King’s Birthday Charleston Meet came to a close, I ended up taking a detour to Sydney. My intentions in Sydney was to get some admin done, see the family and attend some work event, then squeezing some surfing in during the weekends. Because, lets be honest, who goes to Sydney to go caving (I’ve been spoiled rotten by caves in the Nelson region). Despite being born and raised in Australia near amazing surf, I haven’t surfed in any meaningful capacity. So I scramble for a day meeting people through Facebook Marketplace to get all I need squared away. As soon as I finish collecting gear, I do a lil post to my story on Wednesday night looking for people to go surfing with.

Why you should pay attention to the Conservation Amendment Bill as a caver.

The Conservation Amendment Bill is currently open for submissions to the select committee - Now extended to closing at midnight on the 13th of July 2026. This bill would allow the “disposal, sale or exchange” of 60% of our Public Conservation Land and rewrite the purpose of the Department of Conservation to make economic development their core function. FOG would like to encourage all our members who take joy in accessing our Public Conservation Land to read up on the Bill and make personal submissions.

Do you like being cold and wet? Do you like shooting lasers at each other then interpreting your dots to form something semi resembling a cave passage? Then come on a surveying trip!

This is exactly what myself, Sach, and Anya got up to on Saturday 26th June. What started off as a plan to to go mountaineering turned into a survey trip for Cave stream. A wonderful horizontal sporty cave by Castle Hill. The cave is an approximately 560m phreatic passage with a streamway which runs the length of the short system. Water levels do vary pending on rainfall/snow melt and there are a few short climbs which involve battling the water if your going upstream but when we went the water level varied from knee to thigh. I was very impressed to find my sports bra pretty dry despite me falling off a short 1m climb into a waterfall. Don’t worry though, the tablet survived.