BY TOM HUNT - Nelson

Reluctant record setter Richard Harris has returned to Australia after plunging 182m through icy crystal-clear water into caves at the base of Mt Arthur.

Dr Harris, from Adelaide, was part of a team that last March beat the old New Zealand and Australian cave diving record, when English diver Rick Stanton reached 177m below ground level in the Pearse Resurgence.

On Saturday, as part of an all-Australian team, Dr Harris took the plunge, following a line laid by Mr Stanton and continuing 30m further horizontally along the cave and 5m deeper, setting a new record of 182m.

The added distance also meant that Dr Harris found the bottom of the system - a trophy that would have been claimed last year if Mr Stanton's lamp had not imploded.

However, Dr Harris was reluctant to claim the record, pointing out that his descent was aided by the line laid last year.

He added that Mr Stanton - the holder of numerous diving records - was "such a good bloke, he won't mind anyway".

Now that the bottom, if not the full extent, of the cave had been found, he said it was unlikely that he would again enter the chilly waters of the resurgence, where the temperature was only about 7degC.

He had to wear an undergarment "like a sleeping bag with arms and legs", a 12-volt heated vest and a drysuit to combat the cold.

While the descent took only about 15 minutes, Dr Harris was under water for about four and a half hours because the lengthy decompression process meant he had to ascend to the surface in stages.

Dr Harris, who began diving in 1986, said the appeal of cave diving was far-reaching, including the technical aspects, the thrill of exploration and "the excitment of going somewhere no one has gone before".

Australians Andrew Bowie and Grant Pearce were also members of the team but stayed near the surface during Saturday's dive.

In May 1995, Englishman David Weaver died while trying to set a cave diving record in the Pearse Resurgence. His body was trapped in the cave until it was retrieved in January 1997.

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