On our last day in Golden Bay we decided to visit a couple of places before heading back over the Alps to Christchurch. Our first stop was Rawhiti Cave, a large limestone cave famous for is stalactites.
The trail started in open farmland and followed a dry creek up the valley for a couple of kilometres.
Eventually the track took a sharp turn away from the dry creek and started climbing very quickly up the steep hillside. The recent rains made this section of the track a little slippery, but we picked our way over the rocks and roots. The forest started to thin and we saw the start of the limestone outcrop appear through the trees ahead of us.
As we continued along the trail we started to notice the stalactites at the cave entrance overhead.
The cave entrance is huge, one of the largest in New Zealand at nearly 40 metres wide and 20 meters tall. The trail continued down into the cave which seemed to drop away beneath us.
Describing Rawhiti as a cave is a bit misleading as this section is more of a huge overhang. As we descended to the viewing platform we could see the curving roof of the cave above us entirely covered in stalactites.
Looking back out towards the mouth of the cave we were able to see the silhouettes of the stalactites.
The stalactites at Rawahiti Cave are unusual as the plant growth on them causes them to grow towards the sunlight creating unusual shapes.
After admiring the different shapes and the shear number of stalagmites we retraced our steps back down towards the car ready for one more adventure before leaving Golden Bay.