Moncks Cave, Cave in Redcliffs, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Moncks Cave is a cave in Redcliffs, Christchurch, whose entrance was exposed in 1889 when road workers dug through the base of the hill. The photograph shows a wide, irregular opening in a rock face, with a pale grey and white overhang above and rust-red and dark brown staining around it; loose grey and white broken rock lies piled at the lower right.

In 1889 workmen quarrying road metal at the base of the hill broke through and found the cave entrance. A landslide before European settlement had most likely sealed it, and charcoal on the roof shows fires had burned inside.

Among the finds were a wooden ama (outrigger canoe float), a carved paddle, a canoe bailer, a wooden carving of a dog, fishing-net fragments, greenstone axes, black hair, and fish and moa bones from an inner cave. The objects show how early Māori fished and carved wood. The cave is a Category 1 historic place, listed in 2009.

The entrance was exposed when workmen dug through the base of the hill for road metal in 1889; the opening now sits in a rock face above broken stone and vegetation. The cave lies in Redcliffs, Christchurch, and was listed by Heritage New Zealand as a category 1 historic place in 2009.

The sealed environment preserved rare wooden objects like a carved paddle and a dog figurine that reveal early craftsmanship directly. These organic materials would normally decay in open air, making them extraordinarily valuable for understanding daily life.