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Solo Trip 2003

When Dave Apperley was in NZ recently to dive the RMS Niagara, he decided to take a quick trip to the Pearse Resurgence. For various reasons Dave did this solo. Here is Dave's diary from the trip:

Thursday 20th February

The helicopter dropped me in at the Pearse resurgence at 8.30a.m. It snowed this morning on top of Mt Arthur and proceeded to start raining at approx 10.00a.m. At least it allowed me to set up camp before “pissing down” for the following 24hrs. After setting up camp, I assembled all necessary dive gear and found the breather was failing both positive and negative tests. Found the 2nd unit counterlung had a tiny puncture. It took all day to firstly find, then to fix this leak. I'm fairly apprehensive about the whole scenario of being here and diving on my own, concerned about all sorts of things from “Bends to broken ankles”.
Note: Not very smart being here solo!!
Special note to those who knew him. Nero, my blue cattledog of 18yrs died today. “Goodbye buddy”.

Friday 21st February

Awoke this morning to the Pearse river water level having risen 30 cm plus overnight! (Not Happy) The water flowing over rocks at the gear up area began to remind me of last yrs trip and the horrid time I’d had diving in high flow. (This is exactly what I didn’t need, already battling psychological demons)
Went for a Trog in the drysuit across the Pearse River and up a small flowing creek bed to the right of the Pearse Resurgence, (N.W.) but eventually had to turn around when the creek turned into a very steep canyon. Returned to the Pearse and floated downstream for a while checking for leaks in the suit (this suit had been in storage for sixteen months, semi damp).
Just arrived back at camp when two Welsh cavers, named Mike and Martin arrived along with local caver Sarah Brewer. They had walked in for the day to go and cave Nettlebed system. They have made some significant finds in the Riwaka Resurgence and are planning to return next year for more virgin passage. They moved on around 4.00p.m. Their stories of rewarding dives inspired me to get on with achieving my own goals.
Dive1: 4.00pm.
1). Absolute shitfight gearing up on one’s own!
2). Every piece of equipment was a hassle to put on, that is, every bit!!
3). On the dive I couldn’t unclip my cylinders, and couldn’t get to second rebreather buttons properly.
Exited the pond about one hour later. (thought about packing up & walking out to go help the guys at Riwaka)”REALLY FUCKED OFF AND DEJECTED!!”
I've been reading “Beyond the Deep” by Bill Stone and remember how it is said that one of his qualities is that he will not give up on the expedition goals even when things are really turning bad and at all time lows. I’m staying I thought. It’s 1-0 to the Pearse but it’s the best of 4! (days diving)
Dive 2:
Fixed all the equipment issues and forced myself to do another dive tonight. Maximum depth was 55 metres, laid approx 50 metres of line in a side tunnel that starts around 24 metres and twists and turns down to 55 metres. (See map for info). Total dive time was 118 minutes. I felt slightly cold at the end but I'm sure I can do 150 minutes.
Really ecstatic about this dive, I’ve clawed a bit back. I’d say it’s 1-0.5 to the Pearse at this stage. BRING ON TOMORROW!.

Saturday 22nd February

Major mind games today, I also felt like shit physically. Set up the breather all day until about 3.00p.m. then had a sleep & woke about 6.00p.m. Said “Stuff it, not diving”. Not good for morale and even worse for the psychological battle I was having with returning solo to the area where last time I'd had a bad CO2 hitat 120 metres. Bad Day: Pearse 2.0 –Dave 0.5.

Sunday 23rd February

I woke up and went straight for a dive. Gearing up was a bit average and took some time. Took an air tank in to place at 40 metres in the event of a semiclosed bailout situation. (6% O2 is pretty useless for semiclosed decompression). I sat in Nightmare Cres for 5 minutes finning constantly against a rock to ensure the breather was fully operational then set off down the shaft with an incredibly slow descent, having a good look around 55 metres for my line from the other day. No sign, it could be a separate room. Kept descending very slowly through the 80 metre mark and could clearly see Kieran Mckays old line on the other side of the passage (must pull it out tomorrow). I arrived at 105 metres (just into the beginning of Needle Bender tunnel) at about 12 minutes dive time. Spent three minutes slowly cruising around and looking for any loose line, then repositioned the line at this depth to a better spot (nice line trap if you lost all your lights). Saw my 6mm line looping off down the passage, not taut, but not spaghetti either. It may not be too bad. Then spotted the plastic drum I’d used for a reel last time. It was empty and lying in the silt. This was a bad sign, because it means there may be a lot of loose stuff where I did the final tie last year. I'll need to tidy this up tomorrow. The ascent was incredibly slow, taking about 15 minutes to get back to 50 metres. I picked up the air cylinder and proceeded with the rest of the deco. Runtime planned was 90 minutes, but did 115mins for conservatism and I’d also managed to get 3 minutes behind in my schedule around the 40 metre mark. Looking forward to virgin passage tomorrow. PEARSE 2.0- DAVE 1.5 My hands were unusually cold today. NOTE: Have noticed unusual amounts of silt on this years dives, especially today ,at the bottom. Maybe there weren’t the big floods last season as is usually the case.

Monday 24th February

Great Day, my confidence is restored and I feel better about myself psychologically. The last 12 months, what with my CO2 hit and then, just when I was getting over that, having to watch Jason go blue due to the same thing, I really started to think twice about deep rebreather diving. But it seems I’m back!. Today I dived to the farthest known point of the cave and beyond. Unfortunately I think it stops for me here. I can’t see a way on for the type of kit I’m wearing. I went through to the big room. The lead in the roof is too small for me, and the next lead in the far wall isn’t one, it’s just an indent that my torch couldn’t penetrate last time. Now for what seemed like the bottomless room. I mustn’t have had a good look (I do remember last time I was short on time). The floor is at 130 metres, covered in silt, but there is a remote possibility of a lead at floor level on the far side of the room. It looks to me like the silt rose up and met the wall, however I have thought this before, only to find on closer inspection that it was a “duck under” and continuing passage developed. I am ninety percent sure this is not the case here, however will maybe have a look one day.
Dive plan was 176 minutes, however I stayed in until 229 minutes for conservatism. Maximum depth was approximately 127 metres (the computer showed 103 metres, but it was wrong). I counted knots in the guideline back to a known 120 metre survey point. VERY HAPPY WITH TODAYS DIVE!!
PEARSE 2.0 –DAVE 2.5.

Tuesday 25th February

Fly out today, pack up and move to Auckland. R.M.S. Niagara here we come!