Cave Connection

A few years ago Scott filmed the Cave Connection for Red Bull Media.  He joined notorious caver, Kieran MacKay and crew to find a link between two cave systems in New Zealand – the Nettlebed system and Stormy Pots.  It was spring.  The weather on the surface was all over the show.  I dropped Scott off to meet Kieran for a reconnaisance and you could tell Kieran was immediately stoked to see that Scott is not a big guy. Meaning he could squeeze though the tight spots.

The film was really popular and won awards at various film festivals.  What gets me is that Scott had to do all the squeezes and underwater sections right along there with the caving team.  He’d filmed in caves before but he’s not exactly a regular cave explorer.  Watching this film gives me the creeps.  I’d thought that it was bad enough to contemplate the sleeping in 40 year old sleeping bags stored permanently underground; Or that bedtime consisted simply of turning out the light and setting the alarm to wake you into the same scene of absolute darkness 6-8 hours later.  But no, the film takes you into the pure grovelliness of cave exploration.  As Mick Hopkinson, early NZ “pot-holer” explains in his Manchurian accent:  “It’s a dirty, cold sport – with no heroes”.

Here’s a link:  https://www.redbullmediahouse.com/content/movingimages/tv-documentaries.html

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