New Zealand Schwede66 · CC BY-SA 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 28 m.
The real relief above Moncks Cave, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
28m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
12°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
256m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
12 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 12 °C here, in January and in August. In January the afternoon reaches 24 °C at the entrance, 12 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- 24°12°Jan
- 24°11°Feb
- 21°10°Mar
- 17°7°Apr
- 14°5°May
- 11°3°Jun
- 10°2°Jul
- 12°3°Aug
- 14°4°Sep
- 16°6°Oct
- 19°8°Nov
- 22°10°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Cave located in Redcliffs, Christchurch
Moncks Cave is a cave in New Zealand. The entrance is at 28 m.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Redcliffsnearest town · 0.4 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 1.2 km from the entrance
- Christchurch International Airport (CHC)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 19 km in a straight lineCar hire at CHC airport (Christchurch)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 4other cave entrances within 3 km
- 8viewpoints within 3 kmPort hills, Upper Gondola Station and 6 more
- 7marked hiking routes within 3 kmC360 Trail - alternative - Summit Road, Crater Rim Walkway, C360a Godley Cliffs and 4 more
- 3climbing crags within 3 km
- 28car parks within 2 km
- 10information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 81bus stops within 2 km
- 5campsites within 8 kmS Brighton Holiday Park, Awaroa/Godley Head Campsite, South New Brighton Holiday Park and 2 more
- 37hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmBealey Avenue Motel, Canterbury House, All Stars Inn on Bealey and 34 more
- 34restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Redcliffs0.4 km in a straight line
- Clifton0.8 km in a straight line
- Southshore1.6 km in a straight line
- Sumner1.8 km in a straight line
- Mount Pleasant1.9 km in a straight line
- Heathcote Valley2.6 km in a straight line
- Lyttelton4.6 km in a straight line
- South New Brighton5.2 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Moncks Cave.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Peakyas11 mountains within 10 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 24 | 24 | 21 | 17 | 14 | 11 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 19 | 22 |
| Afternoon | 24 | 24 | 21 | 17 | 14 | 11 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 19 | 22 |
| Night | 12 | 11 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Rain (mm) | 67 | 58 | 61 | 76 | 79 | 80 | 72 | 70 | 57 | 78 | 68 | 77 |
| Rainy days | 12 | 9 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 13 | 14 | 12 | 14 |
| Sun hours/day | 8.3 | 8.1 | 7.1 | 5.6 | 4.6 | 3.8 | 4.5 | 5.5 | 6.6 | 7.7 | 8.4 | 8.0 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 24 | 24 | 12 | 67 | 8.3 |
| Feb | 24 | 24 | 11 | 58 | 8.1 |
| Mar | 21 | 21 | 10 | 61 | 7.1 |
| Apr | 17 | 17 | 7 | 76 | 5.6 |
| May | 14 | 14 | 5 | 79 | 4.6 |
| Jun | 11 | 11 | 3 | 80 | 3.8 |
| Jul | 10 | 10 | 2 | 72 | 4.5 |
| Aug | 12 | 12 | 3 | 70 | 5.5 |
| Sep | 14 | 14 | 4 | 57 | 6.6 |
| Oct | 16 | 16 | 6 | 78 | 7.7 |
| Nov | 19 | 19 | 8 | 68 | 8.4 |
| Dec | 22 | 22 | 10 | 77 | 8.0 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (28 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 41% | 100% | 119% | 74% | 66% | 119% | 101% | 76% | 124% | 113% | 127% | 123% |
| 2021 | 116% | 50% | 99% | 81% | 186% | 107% | 96% | 138% | 124% | 112% | 105% | 201% |
| 2022 | 55% | 315% | 56% | 47% | 118% | 115% | 389% | 140% | 92% | 93% | 184% | 89% |
| 2023 | 83% | 179% | 218% | 139% | 166% | 79% | 201% | 90% | 160% | 88% | 83% | 111% |
| 2024 | 119% | 85% | 67% | 69% | 57% | 99% | 94% | 159% | 151% | 168% | 86% | 167% |
| 2025 | 115% | 60% | 120% | 201% | 116% | 129% | 90% | 81% | 121% | 138% | 86% | 112% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Moncks Cave
New Zealand
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 28 mEntrance altitude
- 12 °CInside, all year
Cave Stream
New Zealand · 90 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 674 mEntrance altitude
- 8 °CInside, all year
Te Ana – The Caves
New Zealand · 148 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 48 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Metro Cave / Te Ananui Cave
New Zealand · 208 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 113 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q19690474) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
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