Blogs from Waitomo Caves, Waikato, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

October 22nd was a great day to be my birthday! We first went to Waitomo to do some caving. There were several options but ultimately I and 3 others from the bus chose to do the Toomoo Toomoo Tubes. We got in to our gear - wetsuits (I needed assistance with this one!), gumboots, and helmet and climbed down 27 feet on a ladder into one of the many caves in Waitomo. Once in the caves we had to climb over rocks, swim in freezing water, and crawl through claustrophobic passages but it was all worth it just to see the thousands of glow worms that called the cave “home”. Towards the middle point of the caving experience, we had gotten into black tubes, shut off our headlights, formed a human chain, and “black-water rafted” among ... read more

Marie est epuisee... Simon en veut encore!!! On revient tout juste d'une super expedition dans les cavernes de Waitomo ou nous avons grimpe, nage et marche dans l'eau froide.. On nous avait dit qu'on serait: wet, muddy, exhausted, que c'etait une vraie aventure... he bien, on n'en a eu pour notre argent! C'etait maladement hot! ... read more

I am so pleased we allowed time in our increasingly hectic schedule to visit the small rural town, Waitomo. We'd heard good things about the "black water rafting" that you can do there which had been described to us as sitting in a blown up tractor tyre tube on a river in the pitch black of a cave. Fun. The extensive network of caves in the subterranea of the Waikato district are formed as rain water trickles through a ceiling of porous limestone rocks, eroding the soft rocks and forming stalagmites and stalactites and all that.... The caves are also home to insect larvae which would normally be a reason NOT to visit the caves except these larvae are commonly known as glowworms. Vibrations in the cave trigger a bioluminescent reaction in the glowworm which in ... read more