Ellis Basin: Cavers connect two systems

A team of explorers managed to connect two large cave systems in New Zealand. Kieren McKay, Aaron Gillespie, Troy Watson and seven other cavers went into the Ellis Basin cave system in New Zealand’s Kahurangi National Park. All three are members of the New Zealand Extreme Caving Team in search "… for a cave that passes an international milestone, [3,937 feet] 1,200 meters deep and up to [62 miles] 100 kilometers long," according to their website.

The goal of the "2010 Expedition to the Ellis Basin" was to survey the cave system beneath the top entrance, called Tomo Thyme. Water from the cave system emerges in a huge spring at the head of the Pearse River, over 5 miles (8 kilometers) away. The team says that the Pearse Resurgence must be replenished from unknown caves that drain thousands of acres of terrain, full of deep shafts and disappearing streams.

During the three week expedition, the team managed to survey a total of 1.6 miles (2.5 kilometers) and discovered and documented blue stalactites in the Tomo Thyme area of the cave system.

The Ellis Basin is currently in the top 80 of the world’s deepest cave systems. Kieran hopes that future connections will eventually bring the system into the top-10 of the world’s deepest caves.

Find out more at their: Expedition page