Progress finally being made on Dannevirke’s Fantasy Cave

A forest of trees and a Gingerbread House in the Fantasy Cave's pop-up last year.

Work on Dannevirke’s new Fantasy Cave could begin early next year.

At the annual meeting of the Fantasy Cave Charitable Trust, chairman Grant Hurrell said it was anticipated that building would start in the second quarter of 2024.

The cave was forced to close in May 2019 because it did not meet fire safety regulations.

Rather than upgrade the premises the board rented, the decision was made to rebuild. Since then the board and volunteers have worked hard to keep the project on track.

”Work on the revision of the structure of the new cave has been slower than desired due to the constraints of availability and inflation post-pandemic,” Hurrell said.

However, over the last two months progress had been more positive, he said.

”Prices have been finalised and signed off with the tenderer.”

With prices finalised the trust’s fund manager had been working to make further funding applications and the board was awaiting the results of these.

Hurrell said once funding was received construction could begin, but not until early next year as the tenderer had prior commitments.

He said the work carried out by the trust’s board had been extremely worthwhile despite being frustrating at times.

”The board has had to deal with regular changes to government, local body and funding regulations that meant planning had to be altered.”

Trust secretary Elizabeth Edwards said the trust had been frustrated by red tape and changes that had occurred in funding.

She said the process of applying for funding had become more complex requiring far more paperwork.

In terms of contracts for the work on the new cave, Edwards said the board had tried as much as possible to use local tradesmen.

The exception was in finding professional contractors to take on the more technical stages of the project.

Edwards said there had been some exceedingly generous quotes for the provision of specific materials and services.

In his report Hurrell said last year’s pop-up, held in the Fountain Theatre, was successful, attracting 2300 visitors during the short time it was open.

”The financial returns were extremely good and included sponsorships, donations and the sale of photographs. This year a raffle was included and was popular and successful.”

He said the support of the town for the Pop-Up was encouraging and much appreciated.

Edwards said the community was extremely generous with most businesses happy to donate to the pop-up and buy raffles.

Hurrell said the trust appreciated the support of the volunteers who helped with the pop-up and throughout the year.

Already the call has gone out for volunteers for this year’s pop-up. There was no election required for the trust’s board for the next two years.

The board is made up of Hurrell, Edwards, Malcolm Peffers, Heather Cheer and project manager Bruce Johnson together with minutes secretary Shirley Walker.

Hurrell said the turnout at last week’s annual meeting was excellent with around 35 people attending.

“We were delighted with the attendance. It shows there is still strong interest in the future of the cave.”

Edwards said outside of Tararua there was also interest in the cave and she constantly received inquiries as to whether the cave was open and requests for bookings.

The board is working on preparing a window display in Mills Garage which is on the site of the new cave. It will have a building account number, a barometer to track the money raised and a list of major sponsors. This should be completed by the end of the month.