I had the unique opportunity to visit one of Auckland’s longest lava caves: the “Cave of a Thousand Press-ups.” True to its name, this isn’t a cave for the faint of heart. It’s located on the eastern side of One Tree Hill, Auckland, and you can only get in through a locked manhole cover. It’s not open to the public, so don’t attempt to open the cover.
This cave is a winding labyrinth of passages, formed by a lava flow that branched out into multiple lobes before draining. While there’s over 200 metres of passage to explore, it’s far from comfortable. The ceiling barely reaches 1.2 metres at its highest, and much of it is well under a metre. You’ll encounter numerous tight squeezes, some as low as 0.2 metres. The name says it all: you’ll definitely be doing a thousand “press-ups” to navigate your way through! It was also super hot during our visit, with very stale air.
Once we were suited up and had the wire ladder rigged, we lowered ourselves into the manhole. With a busy road literally right there, we certainly attracted some odd looks from passersby 🙂
It’s a ten-meter climb down, which eventually leads you to what I’d loosely call the cave’s “main chamber.” I say “loosely” because it’s hardly spacious! Here, the ceiling barely rises to 1.2 meters, so you’re still crawling to move around.
The “main chamber” – Just enough room to sit comfortably.
Following one of the passages, I quickly ran into the A’a lava. It was super sharp and made for really slow going. There was absolutely no room to even think about standing up. This is where I racked up my first hundred or so press-ups.
Wonderful example of “Wind Stripe”. During a lava tube’s active phase, superheated gases and strong winds can blast through the tunnel. If the ceiling and walls are still molten, this intense flow of gas and wind can actually carve distinct lines or “stripes” into the rock, much like you see in the image below.
Heading in the other direction, I encountered a really tight squeeze. Even for me, being quite slender, I found it pretty difficult. In fact, one person in our group even got temporarily stuck on the way out!
You’ll definitely want to bring the survey map with you. It’s incredibly easy to get lost with passages branching off everywhere. Oh, and be prepared to get super muddy!
Thank you to the wonderful members of the Auckland Speleo Group for making this adventure possible.