Operation W.E.K.A
The Brewery Hole
Neil Thorpe providing surface support to Tom Crisp after a sucsessful exploration dive
The Brewery Hole gets it name from the time when water was used from the sinkhole to brew beer for the local gold miners. The brewery however did not last long as gold was in short supply. A blacksmiths was then built on the land that is still there today listed as a heritige site.
Located on the limestone plains of Otago, the Brewery Hole is the anomoly for New Zealand. The cave is aquifer fed with crystal clear water that flows year round.
The cave is on private property so permission from the land owner Neil Thorpe must be obtained before any diving can be undertaken. Neil has been key in the exploration of the Brewery Hole, not only providing access to the cave but also surface support and an in depth knowledge of the surrounding geology. He has also organised a grant from Meridian Energy to clean the sinkhole and blacksmits up to turn into an attraction for passing tourists to enjoy. Without Neil, this project would not have been possible.
To date, around 500m of passage has been explored in the Brewery Hole. The entrance sinkhole was caused by an eddie that erroded a chamber causing a collapse. Upstream can be dived once a no mount restriction is negotiated. Once past the initial restriction, the cave opens up and follows a hinge fault for around 150m before making an abrupt right hand turn away from a nearby river. The cave then continues at a depth of around 3m for a further 100m distance before dropping to 10m and changing shape. Below 10m the passage is low and wide trending in roughly a SW direction towards a series of sinks that were isotope tested by Meridian energy. Only another 3500m to go!
In the entrance sinkhole, progress is being made to open up the downstream section that flows to a nearby spring in the wetlands. The entrance to a dry cave called "school cave" was filled in when a limestone archway collapsed into the sinkhole blocking the entrance. Efforts are still being made to open this portion of the karst feature.
Short video from June 2015
