The following is a list of some of the more well known
cave
A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...
s and caverns in New Zealand.
Not all caves have an official name as set by the New Zealand Geographic Board. The national
caving
Caving – also known as spelunking in the United States and Canada and potholing in the United Kingdom and Ireland – is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology i ...
association maintains maps of all known surveyed caves and the name is generally allocated by the group who first discovered the cave.
North Island caves
*Many
lava tubes and lava caves in the
Auckland volcanic field, including:
**
Rangitoto lava caves
**
Wiri Lava Cave
Wiri lava cave is Auckland's longest known lava cave
A lava cave is any cave formed in volcanic rock, though it typically means caves formed by volcanic processes, which are more properly termed volcanic caves. Sea caves, and other sorts of er ...
*
Waitomo
Waitomo is a rural community in the King Country region of New Zealand's North Island. There are several solutional cave systems in the area around the village, which are popular tourist attractions. Restaurants and accommodation are centred i ...
district:
**
Aranui Cave
**
Gardner's Gut
**
Ruakuri Cave
**
Waitomo Cave
South Island caves
*
Broken River Cave
*
Cathedral Caves
The Cathedral Caves are two connected limestone sea caves located on Waipati Beach, south of Papatowai, on the Catlins Coast in the southeast corner of New Zealand's South Island. The two main cave systems join together within the cliff and ...
*
Cave Stream
*
Clifden Limestone Caves
*
Honeycomb Hill Cave
Honeycomb Hill Cave is located in the Oparara Basin, on the northwestern edge of the South Island of New Zealand. The Oparara River flows through a section of the cave.
The cave was discovered in 1976 by the Buller Caving Group. Since then, ...
*
Metro Cave / Te Ananui Cave
*
Mount Arthur caves:
**
Ellis Basin cave system
**
Nettlebed Cave
*
Moncks Cave
*
Mount Owen caves:
**
Bohemia Cave
**
Bulmer Cavern
*
Rawhiti Cave
*
Riwaka Resurgence
*
Tākaka Hill caves:
**
Harwoods Hole
**
Ngārua Caves
*
Te Ana-au Caves
**
Aurora Cave
See also
*
List of caves
This is a list of caves of the world that have articles or that are properly cited. They are sorted by continent and then country. Caves which are in overseas territories on a different continent than the home country are sorted by the territory' ...
*
List of rock formations of New Zealand
This is a list of rock formations in New Zealand based on their aesthetic and cultural importance. New Zealand's geomorphology is formed through an interaction between uplift, erosion and the underlying rock type. Most of the notable examples ...
*
Speleology
Speleology is the scientific study of caves and other karst features, as well as their make-up, structure, physical properties, history, life forms, and the processes by which they form ( speleogenesis) and change over time (speleomorphology) ...
References
External links
List of New Zealand's longest cave systems
{{Authority control
New Zealand, List of caves in
Caves in New Zealand
Caves
A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...
de:Liste von Höhlen#Neuseeland