The best Waitomo glow worm cave tours
From black water rafting to seeing glow worms without getting your feet wet, these are my favourite Waitomo experiences
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Beneath the rolling green hills of Waitomo lies a labyrinth of limestone caves; the name Waitomo comes from the Māori words wai (water) and tomo (hole or shaft). Although glowworms are the star attraction for most visitors to Waitomo, the cave systems with their limestone formations, rivers, and caverns offer caving and adventure opportunities just as enticing as glowing bugs.
Wriggling, climbing, and rafting through the caves around Waitomo is one of the best things you can do in the North Island.
There are many caves and tours to choose from, ranging from trips where you can keep your feet dry to those where you can jump feet first into pitch black water.
Waitomo cave tours at a glance
Spellbound is. best for seeing glowworms, without the adrenaline
My favourite caving trip — with a bit of rafting, swimming, and climbing through caverns — is the Waitomo Experience
The most adventurous experience is the Black Abyss tour , which includes abseiling into a cave and an underground zipline
The Waitomo Experience
LOCALLY OWNED | SMALL GROUPS
From $269 per adult for a 3.5 hour trip, including a hot tub to finish
Best for: Anyone looking for a great mix of floating, swimming, and walking through visually beautiful caves, without doing anything too thrill seeking. Probably my favourite Waitomo tour.
The newest operator around Waitomo, The Waitomo Experience operates in the Okohua Cave (another caving operator used to run trips through these caves pre-Covid, but they shut down during the pandemic). The company is now owned and run by adventure guides and the landowners, so it’s currently a small and local business.
In groups of no more than six people, you’ll explore about 1 kilometre of the Okohua Cave. The entrance to the cave is a short walk from The Waitomo Experience base, which is 20 minutes south of Waitomo Village. The tour includes a bit of everything; optional tight squeezes, floating underneath glow worms in rubber tubes, and walking and swimming through different caverns.
The variety of the cave formations was a highlight for me. Sections of the Okohua Cave are visually stunning (more so than the caves where Discover Waitomo runs black water rafting trips). One passage in particular felt like a series of sculptures, where water had carved whorls and holes in the limestone. Climbing over and through these unique formations was just as cool as floating along beneath the glow worms in tubes.
At the end of the tour you climb out of the ground and walk five minutes back to base (it’s a very well set up operation), where you can warm up in one of the cedar hot tubs overlooking the green hills which hide the caves. I appreciated that photos and videos are included as part of the tour.
Black water rafting with Discover Waitomo
From $193 per adult for the Black Labyrinth; and $322 for the Black Abyss
Best for: Maximum adrenaline and black water rafting (more time is spent floating in rubber tubes than on the Waitomo Experience tour — the Black Abyss option is also more adrenaline oriented)
Discover Waitomo offers two black water rafting options – Black Labyrinth (3 hours) and Black Abyss (5 hours).
I went on the Black Abyss tour, which dials up the adventure element with an abseil down into the cave system and an underground zipline. There were also some excellent climbs up underground waterfalls and some wriggling through tight spaces. But the best part of the trip is undoubtedly floating along a subterranean river beneath the glowworms in the rubber tubes.
If you don’t have time for the full Black Abyss experience, the Black Labyrinth still looks like a great introduction to black water rafting.
One thing I disliked about this black water rafting trip is that they charge extra for photos. We ended up getting them for free, because when we emerged — at 8pm, freezing cold — the hot showers we were promised weren’t working. The photos were a goodwill gesture, which was nice, but in the end most of the photos were so blurry and poor quality they were mostly unusable (you can see the level of quality in the group photo above). I think charging extra for something so low quality comes across as a bit of a cash grab.
With that in mind, I think the overall trip with The Waitomo Experience was better (photos are included as part of the ticket price), even if the rafting portion of that tour is a little shorter than with Discover Waitomo.
Spellbound Glowworm Cave Tours
From $79 for an adult. Spellbound kindly hosted me on a tour
Best for: If you want to see glow worms and cave features without getting wet; this trip is perfect for anyone looking for a gentler option for exploring the caves.
If you’re looking to avoid the crowds at the main Waitomo Glowworm Cave, Spellbound is an excellent option. With a focus on glowworms rather than caving action, the small-group tours are suitable for a range of fitness levels and abilities (there’s no climbing, crawling, or squeezing through tight spaces on this trip).
The Essential Spellbound Glowworm Tour takes you into a cave system located around 30 minutes drive south of Waitomo. After a short walk into the cave, you’ll board a raft to float around underneath a cavern ceiling brightly lit by a truly awe-inspiring number of glow worms.
There’s also the option to visit a second, dry cave – Te Ana Atua (Cave of the Spirit) – on the Spellbound Glowworm and Cave Explorer tour. The second cave has fewer glow worms, but features beautiful rock formations and an almost entire moa skeleton. This was the first time I had seen moa bones, and having grown up with many stories of these legendary giant birds, this was a huge highlight for me.
If you have time, seeing both caves is worthwhile. It’s also worth noting that Spellbound tours are camera friendly. When I visited, the guide helped take photos and had a great handle on how to take low-light photos.
The Waitomo Glowworm Cave
From $81 for an adult. I went as part of a hosted visit.
Best for: If you’re short on time and can’t make one of the other cave tours work. This is the most classically toursity of all Waitomo’s caves.
Despite the fact it’s called ‘The Waitomo Glowworm Cave,’ with the website waitomocaves.com, the most famous Waitomo cave is by no means the best Waitomo cave experience. In fact, I recommend steering clear of the Waitomo Glowworm Cave, and opting for one of the smaller operations instead.
This is the most visited cave today, and the same one tourists have been frequenting since 1889. Local Māori Chief Tane Tinorau and English surveyor Fred Mace were the first to explore the Waitomo Glow worm Cave in 1887. By 1889, Chief Tāne and his wife Huti had opened the cave to tourists. escorting visitors through the cave. Before long, visitor numbers soared.
The government took control of the cave in 1906; almost 100 years later, in 1989, the cave and its lands were returned to the descendents of the original Māori owners. Today, this cave along with two others – Aranui and Ruakuri – belong to the local Māori hapū (sub-tribe) and are operated by a large tourism business (Tourism Holdings Limited) under a joint venture. You can’t miss this main operation in Waitomo; the visitor centre is enormous.
There are some positives to visiting the main Waitomo cave (it’s easy to access, there are many times to choose from, and it’s Māori owned). And you will see glow worms. But, the tours are busy, so you’ll be lumped into a big group, and they run almost continuously. You’ll see the groups ahead of you, and behind you, which really feels like being on a tourist conveyor belt.
Photography is forbidden in these caves. I also felt like the glow worms you see aren’t as impressive as in other caves (like those visited by Spellbound), which might be down to thousands of visitors passing through the caves daily – they are sensitive to the light and disturbances of visitors.
Waitomo Adventures
This family-owned company has a big passion for providing the most dramatic and extreme underground activities in Waitomo – particularly abseils.
The premier tour with Waitomo Adventures is the Lost World Half Day Adventure, which involves a 100m abseil into the earth. This might be the most visually stunning caving adventure (glowworm displays aside); as you’re lowered into the deep crevasse, light filters through and lights up the surreal, plant-covered walls and the cavernous space you’re descending into.
There’s an all day option if the half day isn’t enough, or the Haggas Honking Holes trip which is supposed to feel like “Indiana Jones in a washing machine.”
Thank you for reading
All words (and typos and other errors) are my own, based on my own travels.
During my time on the road, I’ve found many wonderful places — galleries, restaurants, viewpoints and more. I’m sure you’ll find others. If there’s somewhere you think I should know about, contact me at hello@petrinadarrah.com, so I can share with other travellers in future work.
If you’re disappointed with one of my recommendations, I’d love to know that too; places change, or close, so I appreciate updated information.
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If you’ve enjoyed my recommendations, you might want to check these out as well before you go:
AUTHOR BIO
I’m a freelance travel writer from New Zealand with bylines in National Geographic Travel, Conde Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure and more.
I’ve travelled up and down beautiful Aotearoa and I love sharing my recommendations for the best places to visit in New Zealand.
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