Tai Poutini Potholers

Background

The Poutini Potholers are a small group based around Greymouth area who have done quite a bit of caving over last thirteen years. The Group was only formalised in 2000, and then mostly only for conservation reasons (writing submissions about local karst issues etc) rather than acting as a club. This is because almost all the members also belong to the much bigger West Coast Alpine Club which has had regular caving trips since the early 90's. A TPP member runs at least one caving trip, sometimes more per the six monthly WCAC trips list while informal trips within the group happen as people have time and energy.

Search and Rescue

All the members are also on the local cave SAR callout list and TPP - Grey Area Cave SAR Team members were host to this year's South Island Cave SAREX at Punakaiki. The Saturday was spent in Abyssinia on rescue rigging and the use of stemples to carry a stretcher through a rift while Sunday morning was taken up with testing the breaking strain of various items of rigging gear under the masterful eye of Grant Prattley from the Mt. Cook Alpine Rescue Team. Some Cave SAR team members have also taken the opportunity this year to upgrade their skills with courses through the new SARINZ courses operating out of the Tai Poutini Polytechnic, eg. Track and Clue, MLSO and First Aid.

Members

Members of the Poutini Potholers have done quite a bit of prospecting over the last 13 years years, having found and mapped Te Ana Puta Cave at Point Elizabeth (Mary Trayes, Kevin Dash, Warren Smith Owen Joyce), Cassies Cave (Warren Smith, Hamish McLauchlan) behind the Punakaiki village and Abyssinia (Hamish McLauchlan, Warren Smith, Colin Daniell CCG) up the Bullock Creek Road.

Prospecting has been ongoing in fits and starts with veteran caver Paul Caffyn having a good look at resurgences and dry valleys in the Porarari River last summer when water levels were very low (some probable links to Abyssinia), more general prospecting in the Abyssinia area by Hamish McLauchlan and assorted CCG members including Colin Daniell at various times and some re-exploration of the Limestone Road area out the back of Greymouth (originally mapped by the Greymouth Caving Group in the 1970s) by Mary Trayes with assorted friends trying to establish links between various loops of underground streams and the resurgence of Saltwater Creek from Welshman's Cave. The latter has a strong draft from the rockfall at the back of the cave which the group intend to push.

Contact

New members are always welcome in TPP which must have the lowest club subscription rate anywhere in New Zealand - $2 per year. Meetings are held when needed, the minutes have to take less than a page (by decree of the President, Mr Hamish McLauchlan) and active caving is what counts.

• Contact numbers are Mary Trayes 03 762 7414 or Warren Smith 03 732 3758.