Thursday, September 25, 2014

Going underground

Last month I blogged about the South Auckland cave that served as a printery for New Zealand's harried communist movement in 1940, before being discovered by adventurous kids and raided by cops. Yesterday Paul Janman, Ian Powell and I finally visited the place, as we scouted locations for our documentary and book about the Great South Road.

Richard Taylor, that veteran and inspired explorer of the more unglamorous parts of Auckland, was taken into the cave in the early '80s, and remembers that it was easy to enter and to explore. Richard is forgetful.

Here are some stills from the footage Paul shot by the dim light of his lamp. 
[Posted by Scott Hamilton]
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5 comments:

  1. Richard1:15 am

    We must have gone into a different cave. We didn't go very far, so maybe it was the same. Discretion was allowed to be the 'better part of valour'... Also we were being paid so had to move on, the guy I was with had a penchant for a (sometimes) dubious use of taxpayers' time: it was he, myself and some others who went in to watch Caligula on full pay!

    If it helps I have a book about the exploration of a vast cave in France that I believe is one of the deepest.

    However, at my age, it is quite natural I am forgetful. And it might have been about 36 or even 40 years ago. (Caligula came out in 1980 so maybe 34 years have elapsed...

    Did you think of Smithyman's poem about the Waitomo caves?

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  2. Anonymous7:13 pm

    Plato warned us.

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  3. Richard1:24 am

    Plato's cave. A great metaphor.

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  4. Anonymous10:16 pm

    Enter at your own risk. Plato's words?

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  5. Anonymous5:37 pm

    boys will be boys...

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