Pooh Corner in Middle Earth
Posted 20 February 2008 // Basil Keane
Wine rack
You may know that Smaug’s Cave can be found in Middle Earth. But did you know that Pooh Corner is just below Smaug’s Cave?
Michael Brewer, a caver rescued from the Middle Earth cave system on Tākaka Hill near Nelson, does. From where he was injured – about 350 metres below the surface – he was taken out through a series of tunnels, including Pooh Corner, The Rift, Smaug’s Hall and Wiggles Passage. This diagram shows the route they took to get him out.
The Tākaka Hill cave system also has the chillingly named Shortie’s Terror, and Starlight Cave, which the tourists who were recently rescued – after rock-climbing mishaps in Harwoods Hole – travelled through on their way back to the outside world.
Unusual names for these passages are the bedrock of Te Ara’s Caving entry. The Hinkle-Horn Honking Holes and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road are in Nettlebed Cave on Mt Arthur. Where the Wild Things Are and Wellington on a Bad Day are found in Bulmer Cavern on Mt Owen, as is Possumboot Shaft.
The Wine Rack, with cavers inserted as ‘bottles’, is shown above. It is in the Xanadu cave system at Bullock Creek, in Paparoa National Park.
