Abbey Caves


Useful Information

Location: 71 Abbey Caves Road, Whangārei 0175.
4 km northeast of Whangārei, follow Abbey Caves Road to the car park.
(-35.7084763, 174.3551711)
Open: Caves temporarily closed.
[2024]
Fee: free.
[2024]
Classification: SpeleologyKarst Cave KarstKarren KarstDoline KarstStone Forests
Light: bring torch
Dimension:  
Guided tours: self guided
Photography: allowed
Accessibility: no
Bibliography:  
Address: Abbey Caves Reserve, 71 Abbey Caves Road, Whangārei 0175.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1860 Nathaniel and Amelia Clotworthy settle in the area.
1989 sold to the Whangārei City Council.
09-MAY-2023 a local boy dies in one of the caves, caves are temporarily closed.

Description

Abbey Caves, or actually Abbey Caves Reserve, is a small forested region with numerous karst features and three caves. The site has trails and educational signs and shows stone forests and karren. It is owned by the Whangārei District Council. There are three caves named Organ Cave, Middle Cave, and Ivy Cave. They are wild caves which are part of the reserve and located at the loop trail. Organ Cave has a huge chamber which is up to 15 m high, has numerous stalactites, and also glowworms. Ivy Cave is about 75 m long, but only the entrance section is high enough to walk upright. The floor has mud and water, so it is actually not easy to explore. Middle Cave is the shortest of the three caves. Ivy and Middle Cave are both through-caves. It seems they were open to the public as semi-wild caves for some time. The site actually has a new car park with toilets, and is well developed.

However, the caves are currently closed, which is generally called temporarily. There is a rāhui (restriction of access) that Ngāti Kahu o Torongare and Whangārei Hapū have placed. The restrictions are a result of a deadly accident, a local boy died on 09-MAY-2023 in one of the caves. The closure remains in place until the Police and Worksafe NZ have completed their investigations on the accident. However, if the caves will be reopened actually depends on the content of this report, so it is also possible that they will never be reopened.

The area was settled by Nathaniel and Amelia Clotworthy around 1860. They owned an area of 165 ha including the reserve and the caves. They built a house which resembled an Irish abbey, which is the reason why the caves were named Abbey Caves. The house burned down in 1920, only the chimney remains. Later the site was purchased by Golden Bay Cement to quarry limestone, which fortunately never happened. In 1989, they sold the land to the Whangārei City Council for a small sum, which created the public reserve. Since then, the caves were officially open to the public.

We actually created this page while the caves are closed, which was an easy decision. While the site is named after the three caves and as a result is classified as a cave site, it is actually a geotope with spectacular karst features. The site is definitely worth a visit even with the closed caves, for its strange limestone formations, the karren, the pinnacles or stone forest, and the dolines. And actually, the reserve is not closed, only the caves are.