New Zealand Show cave
Ngarua Caves
10 °C inside, all year.
Pseudopanax at English Wikipedia · Public domain
The descent
The entrance, at 652 m.
The real relief above Ngarua Caves, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
652m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
10°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
73m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
10 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 10 °C here, in January and in August. In February the afternoon reaches 18 °C at the entrance, 8 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- 18°11°Jan
- 18°12°Feb
- 16°10°Mar
- 14°8°Apr
- 11°7°May
- 9°5°Jun
- 8°4°Jul
- 8°4°Aug
- 10°5°Sep
- 12°6°Oct
- 14°8°Nov
- 16°10°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
New Zealand limestone caves
Ngarua Caves is a show cave in New Zealand. The entrance is at 652 m. It has stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsHours in OpenStreetMap: Mo-Su 10:00-16:00Official site↗
- Motuekanearest town · 16 km in a straight line
- Parking 120 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Hawkes Lookoutnearest viewpoint · 0.7 km from the entrance
- Nelson Airport (NSN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 41 km in a straight lineCar hire at NSN airport (Nelson)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 1other cave entrances within 3 kmNgārua Caves
- 2viewpoints within 3 kmHawkes Lookout, Bobs Lookout
- 3car parks within 2 km
- 8campsites within 8 kmOld MacDonalds Farm, Marble Hills, WF Moss Scenic Reserve and 5 more
- 5hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmKanuka Ridge Lodge, Riwaka River Estate, Marble Hills Resort and 2 more
- 2restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- marked hiking routes within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- bus stops within 2 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Motueka16 km in a straight line
- Takaka21 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Ngarua Caves.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Peakyas4 mountains within 10 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 18 | 18 | 16 | 14 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 |
| Afternoon | 18 | 18 | 16 | 14 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 |
| Night | 11 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Rain (mm) | 75 | 61 | 71 | 96 | 105 | 115 | 90 | 91 | 86 | 97 | 68 | 98 |
| Rainy days | 10 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 13 |
| Sun hours/day | 10.2 | 9.4 | 8.3 | 6.5 | 5.3 | 4.3 | 4.7 | 6.0 | 7.1 | 8.1 | 9.3 | 9.3 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 18 | 18 | 11 | 75 | 10.2 |
| Feb | 18 | 18 | 12 | 61 | 9.4 |
| Mar | 16 | 16 | 10 | 71 | 8.3 |
| Apr | 14 | 14 | 8 | 96 | 6.5 |
| May | 11 | 11 | 7 | 105 | 5.3 |
| Jun | 9 | 9 | 5 | 115 | 4.3 |
| Jul | 8 | 8 | 4 | 90 | 4.7 |
| Aug | 8 | 8 | 4 | 91 | 6.0 |
| Sep | 10 | 10 | 5 | 86 | 7.1 |
| Oct | 12 | 12 | 6 | 97 | 8.1 |
| Nov | 14 | 14 | 8 | 68 | 9.3 |
| Dec | 16 | 16 | 10 | 98 | 9.3 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (652 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 14% | 72% | 90% | 48% | 112% | 83% | 72% | 114% | 122% | 107% | 278% | 111% |
| 2021 | 40% | 71% | 194% | 88% | 156% | 90% | 167% | 181% | 166% | 136% | 87% | 182% |
| 2022 | 31% | 416% | 77% | 50% | 120% | 170% | 344% | 314% | 115% | 56% | 178% | 84% |
| 2023 | 137% | 128% | 98% | 148% | 211% | 66% | 82% | 93% | 99% | 55% | 104% | 105% |
| 2024 | 85% | 30% | 55% | 82% | 39% | 147% | 129% | 168% | 87% | 146% | 109% | 61% |
| 2025 | 125% | 107% | 61% | 218% | 160% | 227% | 227% | 47% | 107% | 133% | 127% | 101% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Ngarua Caves
New Zealand
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 652 mEntrance altitude
- 10 °CInside, all year
Harwoods Hole
New Zealand · 8 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 748 mEntrance altitude
- 9 °CInside, all year
Rawhiti Cave
New Zealand · 15 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 383 mEntrance altitude
- 12 °CInside, all year
Nettlebed Cave
New Zealand · 32 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 720 mEntrance altitude
- 9 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q24189702) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
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