12-05-2023, 08:33 PM
The events in Whangarei this week were utterly tragic to say the least.
I still dont understand how that trip was even allowed to proceed, given the severe weather and even with one parent pulling their kid out of the trip beforehand.
That should have been enough to raise the alarm to those responsible.
It brings back the memories of the Mangatepopo Canyon disaster which was something you would have thought would have resonated with any school across NZ.
Caves and rain are a bad mix, look what happened to the kids in Thailand in 2018
The moral of the story is use common sense, something that sadly seems to be lacking these days.
I know we did black water rafting on a school trip about 23 years ago, we were having heavy rain and the trip still went ahead, the difference here was that the team actually had been through the cave prior, looked at the water levels and rates of rise, they told us we had to do it a day early as it would be impossible to do if we left it to the next day what was scheduled. These were experienced cavers who know the place and the weather conditions well.
Was still quite a scary experience though, we had the water level less than a foot of roof space between the water and the roof of the cave!
Would be interesting if they would allow this to go ahead in todays circumstances with H&S but was quite a thrilling experience, there was a ton of water going through that cave.
I still dont understand how that trip was even allowed to proceed, given the severe weather and even with one parent pulling their kid out of the trip beforehand.
That should have been enough to raise the alarm to those responsible.
It brings back the memories of the Mangatepopo Canyon disaster which was something you would have thought would have resonated with any school across NZ.
Caves and rain are a bad mix, look what happened to the kids in Thailand in 2018
The moral of the story is use common sense, something that sadly seems to be lacking these days.
I know we did black water rafting on a school trip about 23 years ago, we were having heavy rain and the trip still went ahead, the difference here was that the team actually had been through the cave prior, looked at the water levels and rates of rise, they told us we had to do it a day early as it would be impossible to do if we left it to the next day what was scheduled. These were experienced cavers who know the place and the weather conditions well.
Was still quite a scary experience though, we had the water level less than a foot of roof space between the water and the roof of the cave!
Would be interesting if they would allow this to go ahead in todays circumstances with H&S but was quite a thrilling experience, there was a ton of water going through that cave.
