The THING at the End of the Cave

Dad was from Waihi, a small coastal town in New-Zealand. While we were growing up he often talked about the secret caves he and his siblings loved to explore, and his fondest wish was that one day he could take us back there and show us around.
That day came, and as usual whenever we took a day’s outing, we made a mountainful of sandwiches. Nothing else . . . not even water that I can remember. For side dishes we always relied on the wild blackberries that grew on the side of the road, and the occasional plum tree, usually laden with the most delicious fruit. If we were lucky, we might also find some Chinese gooseberries or even some fejoas.
Dad had remarried by now, and in quick succession they had three boys, so all in all there were two adults, two teenagers and these three little boys
Dad was giddy. It was obvious. He was over the moon about showing us his childhood hideouts. My brother and I were also very excited. This was the stuff of pirates, and we were sure we’d find some type of hidden treasure.
We followed Dad down the steep grassy cliff zig zagging our way down until we reached the beach. It was low tide, just as Dad had planned, because at high tide one couldn’t even reach the caves, and of course if you were caught in a cave when the tide came in you could be swept out to sea.
The first cave was reasonably short, as was the second, but the third cave seemed to go on indefinitely. The further we went in the darker it got, and all we had was one small flashlight. Dad was in front shining the way, and the rest of us followed, each holding one of the little boys. The rocks under our feet were wet and slippery, and I must admit by now I was feeling somewhat uneasy. Dad plowed on determined to get to the end, and of course we followed because he carried our one and only flashlight.
Just then we heard the most dreadful sound coming from the end of the cave. It was a really loud long roar. Actually it was a cross between a roar and a deep groan.
We all instinctively turned on our heels and began to run as fast as we could on those miserable slippery, mossy rocks. There was another roar, and by now we were terrified, and running on pure adrenaline as we kept stumbling out of the cave.
Finally we could see light at the end of the cave, and soon felt sand under our feet.....warm, soft sand.
We scurried away from the caves and plopped down on the beach totally speechless and out of breath. After we finally pulled ourselves together, the big question was "Dad, as we ran out of the cave why didn’t you shine that flashlight our way?" He said "I kept shining it back, because I didn’t want that THING to get us."
We later learned that occasionally sea lions inhabit these caves, and that it was probably an angry old Mother Sea Lion feeling very threatened by some strange THINGS.
Years later after Star Wars came out, and even to this day whenever I think back to that THING encounter, Jabba the Hut always comes to mind.