Glow Worm Caves, New Zealand
Experience the underground world of deep limestone caves illuminated by the green blue glow of thousands upon thousands of glow worms! There are many different guided tours of glow worm caves across New Zealand’s North Island (along with plenty of places you can experience glow worms for free!). During my time on the North Island I did several paid tours and visited several free spots and seeing glow worms never got old!
Where: North Island, New Zealand
When: December to March
Cost: ££ for guided tours
Difficulty: *
Spellbound Cave Tour
The Experience: We boarded a small bus and travelled down through the rolling hills to the location of the caves. This tour started with us meeting some eels in the river at the mouth of the first cave which were enormous. Once just inside the cave entrance, our guide took the time to make sure everyone’s’ phone cameras were set up in the right settings to get good pictures of the glow worms. This is one of the few tours where photos inside the cave are allowed! We then headed inside, donning our hard hats and it was not long before we found some glow worms on a low hanging ledge. We could see the worms and their sticky string threads (that they using to catch their prey) hanging from the ceiling. A river runs through the cave and so we boarded a small boat to float out under a sea of shining glow worms that coated every inch of the cave ceiling. We went back and forth slowly with the tour guide pulling us along by a suspended rope system through the cave. We disembarked the boat and headed to a second cave after a short tea break. The second cave had a few glow worms in but nothing close to what we had just seen. But it did have a lot of really cool cave formations and fossilised bones of extinct Moa birds!
What I would recommend: Bring a jacket/warm layer and walking shoes or trainers. It is much cooler underground in the caves than above ground.
If you only have time to see one glow worm cave in New Zealand, make it this one! This glow worm tour absolutely blew me away, this site easily had the largest number and concentration of glow worms of anywhere I visited in NZ. Tour Cost: $99nzd (£43)
Tour Length: 2-2.5 hr
How to get there: This tour is in the Waitomo area and can be reached by car up quite a long and winding gravel road.
Facilities: Car parking and toilets are located at the tour office/meet point. In the office there is a coffee machine and some items for sale.
Difficulty: This tour does involve some walking downhill, walking through the caves and boarding and disembarking a boat. None of it is particularly strenuous but you are underground so it’s quite dark (and you will want to keep lights to a minimum so you can see the glow worms!
Kawiti Glow Worm Tour
The Experience: I really enjoyed this tour, our guide was super enthusiastic and clearly cared a lot about the glow worms, we learnt in depth about their biology and also about our guides personal experiences and observations of the glow worms over her years guiding in this cave. No photos are allowed inside this cave. We walk the board walk inside to its end point with a ceiling of glow worms illuminating the way. I also liked that we were given small hand held lamps to help us through the cave .
The Kawiti glow worm tour was a really spectacular tour with a heavy focus of the tour on the glow worms. This cave had an impressive display of glow worms that wound their way along the walls and ceiling of the cave passages.Tour Cost: $50nzd (£22)
Tour Length: 1 hr
How to get there: This tour/cave is in the northland region, it is around 5km south of Kawakawa town and can be reached by car.
Facilities: Basic facilities including car parking and toilets are located at the tour office/meet point.
Difficulty: This tour does involve walking through the caves. None of it is particularly strenuous but you are underground so it’s quite dark (and you will want to keep lights to a minimum so you can see the glow worms!
Waitomo Cave Tour
The Experience: This starts with a walk around the cave admiring the structure and formations of the cave before we get to an area where the tour guide shows us some glow worms threads hanging from a shelf. I actually spotted a small insect get caught in one of these sticky threads! We then headed down to the boat launch, once we were all safely on board the guide pulled us through the cave. This glow worm display was impressive because its a relatively large internal space with a large cave ceiling and so many glow worms illuminating it all. This tour is completed as a loop so we sail out through a different cave entrance to which we entered. During this tour photos are not allowed (except at the very end when your guide instructs you). Some of the caves are burial grounds for maori people which is why photos are not allowed inside. Once you’ve disembarked the boat on the other side, you walk up the path that follows the river and eventually find yourself exiting via a gift shop.
The Waitomo glow worm tour is short but sweet, starting on foot and ending in a boat ride under a very impressive display of glow worms and out of the cave. This had the second largest concentration of glow worms of all the sites I visited.
Tour Cost: $81nzd (£35)
Tour Length: 45mins
How to get there: This tour/cave is in the Waitomo region, and can be reached by car.
Facilities: Great facilities including car parking, toilets, restaurant and gift shop are located at the tour office/meet point.
Difficulty: This tour does involve walking through the caves and going down steps and embarking/disembarking the boat. None of it is particularly strenuous but you are underground so it’s quite dark (and you will want to keep lights to a minimum so you can see the glow worms!
Ruakuri Cave Tour
The Experience: This cave tour was very educational, we learnt a lot about the history of the caves, cultural attitudes towards the caves, geology and formations of the caves. This cave is full of extremely impressive cave formations, and fossils of former marine life! We had the chance to see some glow worms and their sticky thread traps up close. There are not as many glow worms here compared to other sites but this was a really cool tour overall, especially if you are interested in caves and geology (and not just glow worms!). As you are underground for quite a while in this cave you really do want a jacket as it is pretty cold down there.
The Ruakuri glow worm tour is a longer tour all on foot with glow worms but also a bigger focus on the cave formations and history. One thing I really liked about this tour is that its wheel chair accessible and photos are allowed!
Tour Cost: $116nzd (£50)
Tour Length: 1 hr 45mins
How to get there: This tour/cave is in the Waitomo region, and can be reached by car.
Facilities: Basic facilities including car parking and toilets. Not far from the car park is a further car park with picnic area that leads to the Ruakari bush walk which is a really stunning trail.
Difficulty: This tour does involve walking through the caves. None of it is particularly strenuous but you are underground so it’s quite dark (and you will want to keep lights to a minimum so you can see the glow worms!
