The Lost Cave Baches
In the late 1880’s fisherman started building up the mouths of caves in the Taylors Mistake area to provide shelter so that they could spend the weekend in the area fishing.
Thomas Archbold in 1897 built one of the first substantial cave baches, followed soon after by Alfred Osborne who built “Pilgrims Rest”. Perhaps the most famous cave bach was “The Hermitage” built from wood salvaged from the 1906 Exhibition and Fullers Old Theatre. The Hermitage was about 12 metres deep, 6 metres wide and 3 metres high, and furnished with among other things a Piano which was rowed around from Sumner in a boat.
Te Nui Anau was built in 1910, and went one better, with a grand piano in the main room which was flanked by separate bunkrooms for the men and woman.
Whilst the sea and vandalism destroyed some baches, in November 1979, the Christchurch City Council burnt the ten cave baches between Taylors Mistake and Boulder Bay. As Bruce Ansley described in the Listener (Bruce Ansley, The Listener, 19 January 2002, page 18) “The remains of the houses can still be seen in the stone steps and fireplaces and sculpted rock. People clamber over the ruins, but not for long – the coastline is less interesting without the houses, and it feels forlorn and desolate.”
Images from Boulder Bay