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Home » Travel ideas » Environment » Extreme » Caves & Caving » Lost World Caverns
Average rating 3.1 / 5.0 (16 votes)
Worth a journey

Add this experience to your wishlist Lost World Caverns

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Lost World offers the world’s longest commercial abseil - no experience necessary for the free 320 foot entrance drop. This sounds crazy but visitors are attached not only to their own rope but also to a guide on another rope for insurance. Lush rainforest spills over the edges of the seemingly bottomless chasm, with the walls belling out into a large chamber lost in mist far below. At the bottom there is an underground river which eventually exits the cave. Around 5 hours of caving are required to follow the river out through the underground canyon. Some swimming and climbing is required but nothing too serious. In places one can follow the passage using only the eerie light of the glow worms which sparkle like countless bluish-white stars on the walls. Fossils of whale bones and countless giant fossilized oyster shells in the walls date to around 30 million years ago when the area was a shallow seabed. The glow worms make New Zealand caving unique and at times pure science fiction.

5 / 5 Review by expert member Mike Lyvers's photo Mike Lyvers

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Lost World Caverns
 Photo by mikelyvers
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