Nettlebed Cave is a limestone cave located in the Mount Arthur region of the northwest South Island of New Zealand. The presence of ongaonga (Urtica ferox), an endemic tree nettle, near the bottom entrance gives the cave its name.
Until April 2010, when the nearby Ellis Basin cave system was found to be deeper,[1] Nettlebed Cave was thought to be the deepest cave system in the southern hemisphere. It drops 889 metres (2,917 ft) below its upper entrance (Blizzard Pot) to its lower exit (the Pearse River resurgence), and its 24 kilometres (15 mi) of cave passages make it New Zealand's third-longest cave.
In January 2014 a group of cavers established that the Nettlebed Cave was connected to the Stormy Pot Cave.
- ^ Andrew Board (13 April 2010). "Historic discovery by NZ cavers". Nelson Mail.
© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search