Notes

x, 238 pages
illustrations.
Summary: Back in 1968, an auspicious meeting was held in a Takaka Hill woolshed between Van Watson, an impetuous young Waitomo caver, and ex-British caver Julia James, 'a lady tornado', who was lecturing in chemistry at the University of Sydney. Van and Jules discovered a mutual interest in a quest to find the deepest hole (cave) in the world--their quest focussed on the marble massifs of Mt Arthur and Mt Owen, in the South Island of New Zealand, with a series of recces and annual Xmas expeditions. Following rumours in 1970 of very thick limestone beds in the Lavani Valley region of Papua New Guinea, with the potential for a world depth record cave, a trip to PNG was conceived. This is the story of that expedition.