109: Dig Update

These updates are not necessarily published on or near the dates the digs occurred, but yes, they continue slowly. Kūwaha Tāwhetaana is a hard nut to crack due to restricted space, but only because certain Maori and a few Archeologists, who were 'paid to be silent' had it filled in the way it now is - ie such a diabolical way. Why not sealed with concrete and steel door? - that would be too obvious there is something to be hidden. Why not dynamite the entrance? Too dangerous. But filling it as it is means it looks natural if a casual observer were to ever stumble past in the hills. Anyone attempting to try dig in thinking it is all loose fill would be put off by the clay and rocks.

We've said before - you would have to be crazy to attempt this and I'm happy with that description. I agree, you would have to be crazy to do this. Albert Einstein once said that "Only those that attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible". Well, doing what we are doing is absurd and many will agree with that. But if what we believe is inside is inside, the absurdity of it all will disappear when the wonder of the discovery within is revealed openly and publicly. It will be a sight surpassing all precedence in published archaeology in the modern world. It will be the main story of this century, as Tutankhamen was of the last - and we do not say that lightly. Revealing of those tall skeletons is vitally important to our past, and for our future.

What is inside was important enough for a tohunga to place a makutu on anyone attempting to reopen the site. One of us has been very ill and nearly died several times before we figured out what it was and when his illness first began. That date was only two weeks after the first dig in 2016 and that individual was the first to put spade to dirt therefore it attached to him. But it is now exposed and it's mana has been broken. This reveals how vitally important this discovery will be to the world that the few Maori that were first made aware of what is in this cave would try to protect it in two ways, one physical and one spiritual (by native witchcraft). It makes us more aware that we have always been on the right track with this, that our suspicions of the caves contents were very real, and that certain Maori want what's inside to stay hidden at all costs. But we were chosen at this time in history to do this by those hidden away inside. So there really is no doubt about the reality of what is inside as I'm sure those of you with an understanding of spiritual things at any level will agree. It's just a matter of time, so we are more determined than ever.

The most recent dig involved a lot more time spent on site than usual. We had the use of a mocked up sled to remove the fill to the entrance where it could be disposed of. You can see one of us working at the head with that simple sled. A strong rope to pull it, when it's full, back along the tube and past the 'stations' to the one near the entrance to be loaded into buckets before being taken taken outside, and a light rope to pull it back when empty. So far we have removed about many cubic metres of quarry dust, hard packed clay and rocks - all while on our bellies and opened it up to what you see below. The third stage will be easier with the new process of removal and more helpers. It's like we've been revived from the constant distractions to date.

We have placed two red lines in this picture showing fill levels foreground and at the corner ahead (click to enlarge). Where the tube is more rounded there is only 15-20mm of space from fill to the centre of the top of the tube. The nearer line (the larger one) is under a little ridge on the ceiling and even this is only 20-25mm. Total height of tube is an average of 950mm and the width is an average of about 1050mm. As this is all done with a hand pick and bucket while on your belly and you can imagine how tired and sore once can get doing it this way. If you are waiting for fill to come back to you from further inside, one can simply lie back in a 'station' and chip away at the fill making those places wider and more comfortable.

This recent job involved widening the 2nd station for safety reasons. Then we will be back to the head around the corner, pushing forward to where the tube turns right again before digging another station. Around this corner, where the tube bends to the left by 60 degrees, we could see another egg, and a single bone. Next time we'll see what animal it belongs to and why there is just one bone there. The egg, like the others we found earlier, is likely a Paradise Duck egg and we are amazed at how they could crawl in there that far, and in such a tight space. This egg appears to have been eaten by either a stoat or a weasel who are small enough to easily reach the egg. How do you tell them apart? A weasel is weaselly distinguished and a stoat is stoatally different.

Beyond this point, the tube seems to be completely filled to the very top. Hopefully that is because the workers who filled it were doing it tightly at the beginning (ie where they started further in near the actual cave) and then figured it wasn't necessary to do so completely and just shoveled it in as near enough. We initially believed the fill wasn't all the way to the top nearer the entrance because of subsidence and settling over the years. We aren't so sure now. It could open up 3 metres beyond the farthest we can see at this point...or 30 metres. The strange thing is how it was filled? Probably each level was done in stages as they moved backwards out to the open air.

Coming back out along the tube to the first 'station' near the entrance, means you turn around further back in at the nearest 'stations'. Even those gaps between the 'waystation' sections involved using your elbows. We spent four hours digging before our muscles finally gave way.

Once around that distant corner we will begin using the air pump to provide fresh air although that will make it much colder inside (this dig the temperature difference was about 7 degrees between inside and outside). But we can always turn the air pump off after it runs for about 5 minutes anyway, and we'll buy a CO2 meter for further in - just to be safe. We will need to buy various extra equipment soon, so if you'd like to help that way so as to feel involved in what we do, please let us know. One has already gifted us this device below which we are about to use again once the humidity problem is fixed (via an air supply). Thanks Rodney for that gift!