ARE THE WAITOMO CAVES WORTH IT? ALL THE OPINIONS

Are the Waitomo Caves worth it?

That’s what I was thinking as we were heading to Waitomo to experience one of the most popular things to do in New Zealand.

My friend and I had agreed to at least do a glowworm experience of some sort in Waitomo, but we both knew that might mean plonking down $100+ in cash. And the questions started to run through our minds…

• Is it worth the money when you can see glowworms for free elsewhere?
• What’s the maximum we’re willing to pay for a tour?
• Are the caves one of those places people go because of FOMO?
• Is there a tour to avoid? What about about the best tour?

Long story short, we opted for the Black Labyrinth tour with the Black Water Rafting Co. and both felt like the $150 wasn’t great value.

But was it just us?

After writing my review of the Black Labyrinth tour, I figured I should do some digging to see if my review was a norm.

There are three parts to this post:

How this post came to be | The 33 Responses | Conclusion & Tips

HOW THIS POST CAME TO BE

Sure, you could read the Trip Advisor reviews, but there’s all sorts of dribble on those reviews. So I set about asking a bunch of people if the Waitomo Caves are worth it on Instagram. Below is the message I sent to people via Instagram having searched the hashtag #waitomocaves which has more than 20,000 tags. Yes, I was sliding into the DM’s of lots of people 😉

Of course, not everyone responded to my message, so I kept going until I received 33 responses, the number we were told in school that gives a meaningful sample size.

Below are the responses I received along with a link to the Instagram account of each respondee. The only changes I made were for grammar and simple editing, as well as removing the excess text like Hey Jub,.

Note: I realised there could be some biased answers in my survey as people post pictures on Instagram when they love something (usually), so I went about doing a check to see if the results from the 33 Instagram opinions was a fair representation. The result is in the conclusion and tips section.

ARE THE WAITOMO CAVES WORTH IT? 33 OPINIONS

I used Auckland Scenic Tours for their Hobbiton/Waitomo Caves Tour. As for the Waitomo Caves, they were absolutely worth it. The Waitomo Caves guides were really informative about the Maori cultural aspect of the caves as well as the scientific background of the caves (about the formation of stalagmites and stalactites and all that). We got to learn a lot about the glowworms as well. I wish the tour was longer and that I could’ve visited more sites like this. @ohitskarisma

We decided to just do the river walk at night as I wanted to take photos with my tripod etc. The tours weren’t too expensive, we just had a long day of driving so decided not to go inside the actual caves. We would have gone on the boat ride. In my opinion, the river walk was amazing enough and no crowds. @v.h.d.a.p_chris_best

I liked all the caves, it was an amazing trip. It was a nice mix of walking/hiking and the experience of this wonderful natural spectacle. I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life. We were on all three tours and it was amazing. I liked the glowworms tour mostly. It was very special to join the worms by boat – like magic!! You could enjoy a moment of silence and let the wonderful work on you. Amazing!! @photography_belly6928

We went to the Black Water Rafting caves and did the 3-hour tour called the Black Labyrinth. It was really cool to see the glowworms (literally thousands) and jumping off the waterfalls was pretty cool too! The only downside was there were spiders and eels in there so if you’re not a fan of those (which we weren’t) then it’s slightly scary! I still enjoyed it though!
@cancelthecommute

In my opinion, they are absolutely worth it if you spend the money and go on a tour with fewer people. We did the Black Abyss Tour and there were only 5 of us and we were told there is a max of 8. We passed the Black Labyrinth tour with heaps more people and immediately said we would have not enjoyed that due to the numbers. I know not everyone has a big budget and might still enjoy just walking through the caves. We, however, wanted a real guided caving experience and that’s what we got! Definitely one of the best tourist activities I’ve done in NZ (and elsewhere!) We overheard the guides saying that the last tour of the day only had 2 people on it which would have been a private tour for us and hence awesome! But it was nice to share it with some fellow kiwis too! @mrs.rowie

You can actually drive to Waitomo from Auckland on the way to Rotorua. We took a tour Package with Great Sights (link Below). We would strongly recommend to do the Cave Tour, it’s truly amazing. @samia_travels

Waitomo was 100% worth it. The scenery was stunning and the locals were amazing and helpful. The caves are amazing too. I was in the twilight Foot Whitstle cave tour, which was really cool and personalised and saw an amazing amount of glowworms. I also did the Spellbound tour – which is a two cave combo of a dry show cave and a glowworm cave with a boat ride which were hella epic. I did a Black Water Rafting tour as well – the Black Labyrinth one – and that was amazing! Tips would be to make sure you check out the i-Site Discovery Centre to do your booking, the staff are wonderful and super helpful. There is also a local all you can eat buffet – Roselands – which has awesome food for a cheap price! @jarroddoran

We loved it, the caves were something out of a movie. We did the Ruakuri tour. It gets you the closest to the glowworms and has an amazing man-made entrance. Tips are, if you do one trip – it’s probably enough. The doubles are good value, but probably more than what you need. The Ruakuri walk is one of the best on the island. Especially at night. The glow worms are all over the forest and light up the wall. The Black Water Rafting trip is the best experience if you’re okay getting wet. @jeraldthethird

Really liked it (Black Labyrinth tour)! 4 hours and there are discounts on BookMe.co.nz depending on the date and time @anti_july

Totally worth it, never seen anything like it anywhere in the world! We did the normal 45 min tour @mikelalv

I really enjoyed the cave. There is only one that is accessible for the wheelchair but that is one more than none!
We went into Ruakuri and it was worth it for me because not a lot are accessible, I guess it depends on what your interests are! My son really enjoyed it and the fact that I was able to take him made it even more special! They let me do the luge in Rotorua also which was so fun, we both really loved that! Again they made it accessible which was awesome!! @shona.muckert

I’m on a bus tour with Kiwi Experience and we went through Blackwater Rafting Company for the caves. They have a few options, 5-hour, 3-hour & a shorter walking tour. I opted for the 5-hour tour that included a 110 ft abseil down, zip-lining, tubing in the river while exploring & learning about the caves/worms, hiking around the underground waterfalls. It was wicked sweet! Definitely worth it. This company was awesome, the guides killed it and I really had an amazing experience. @nligreci

They were absolutely worth it and the Black Abyss tour was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. It is a highly thrilling once in a lifetime adventure that is action-packed with a new crazy thrill around every corner. @paisleylynn_official

It is worth every penny I invested in that visit. I made the visit with Spellbound Glowworm, it was excellent. The super friendly guide.@la.bitacora.del.capitan

We toured with Waitomo Adventures Ltd. This was a repelling and caving excursion that was unique to this company as they were the only ones with rights to this particular cave. During our tour, we were fortunate enough to see glowworms in the cave. It was an absolutely remarkable experience! @travelsofbradley

I went on two tours, the Aranui cave walk (I hope I spelled that right) and the main glowworm cave. I absolutely loved the Aranui cave tour! The tour guide was so funny and really knew his stuff. The main glowworm cave was also great, but from the way they talked about it I thought it would be bigger 😂 I know they can’t really do anything about the size or anything but I thought it was a little weird that we just circled around one area for a bit and then suddenly we were outside. But, again, that’s not their fault 😂

I also think, for the main glowworm cave, the tour size was a bit big. Our group had to split across two boats and at first from the back it was a little hard to hear what the guide was saying. I think if they had they split us up into two groups that would have been better.

But other than that I think they were totally worth it! I really enjoyed both tours. The guides really knew their stuff and the caves were absolutely beautiful! @ashbloomfield99

Definitely check out the free ones they’re all pretty easy caves to go through you can’t get lost. Just expect a few crawls through narrow bits. @madfrog2000

We went on the Black Labyrinth tour and yes it was definitely worth it, although if it would have been better if it was a bit cheaper. Both tour guides were good but one of them promised us to talk about the worms and how they glow and a bit more information but she never did that. We would have loved to get a bit more information along the way. Soup and bagels were great after the tour. Overall 8 out of 10. @farhad.sydney

I definitely recommend the Waitomo caves, I did the Black Water Rafting tour through the Kiwi Experience bus. Tubed and walked through the caves and jumped backward off waterfalls inside! It was so fun and I would do it again!!
@syandanielle

Yeah I think the Waitomo Caves are definitely worth it, I did the Black Water Rafting 3 hour tour I had a great time. @mikeyh_photo

100% would recommend! We did the Labyrinth Tour. Good fun, awesome guides, amazing caves! @heidi.F.finley

First of all you need to know that Waitomo has about 8 transport companies. With my trip they did a great job and picked me up at my location. A friend of mine had problems with that but she handled it. While you are in the cave they tell you a lot about everything. It is quite interesting. I was on the Tumo Tumo Toobing tour so I had a lot of adventure as well. Walking, climbing, swimming and if you want you can choose to make some extra adventure on the tour. I would recommend it to every person who is into adventure and who doesn’t just want to walk through a cave.

On the tour they have some challenges for you as well. I had to stand on a stone and then my guide said that I have to jump down in the very cold water. The challenge in that whole thing was I had to jump backward with the tube. I had a lot of fun on that tour and I would do it again.
@never_stop_dreaming_xd

I’d definitely say it’s worth a visit, the glowworm caves are super fascinating and it’s a beautiful experience. We weren’t on any particular tour, and it’s a bit of a bummer that you can’t take any photos inside but other than that I have no complaints. @sakina.Dohadwala

I was there in 2005. I can’t remember which tour but it was totally worth it. Amazing creatures and a great outdoor activity. @jeroen.oord

We went to Black Water Rafting, we checked it out on the webpage and it was a 160$ tour. 3 hours all together but it was totally worth it. Staff there was amazing, we booked a tour at 9:30 but showed up early at 8:15 so they let us go with group at 8:30 which turned out to be great.

It was 8 people group from all around the world. My friend from Italy, me from Croatia and three couples from Switzerland, United States and Japan. One guide was kiwi and the other was from Sweden. They were super communicative and polite. First they explained to us what and how are we gonna do all the things in the cave, we had to jump into a little stream near the cave and see how we are gonna hold each other inside but that was interesting as well. We got helmets with lights and we were ready to go. We were not allowed to use the phones or cameras in the cave so guides took photos for us. They had a camera and they took photos whenever we wanted.

Inside of the cave is magic. But you don’t think about that because it’s just breathtaking to see stalagmites and stalactites.
Later on in the cave, they tell you to turn off the lights and that’s when you start seeing glowworms. To me it seemed like the longer you had the light off the more they glow. Water was crystal clear since we were the first group that day and we even had a chance to see the fish inside. Actually it’s not a fish I don’t know what it’s called but it was big!!

At a few spots we even had to jump in the water and swim a bit and I absolutely loved it. With glowworms above you. Its just magic.
The tour ends with going slowly on tubes trough dark cave towards the exit with glowworms glowing. Its soo relaxing and nice. Just sound of water and nothing else. For me it was a perfectly started day. @plutalica

Got on the Waitomo glowworm cave + Ruakuri cave combo tour with the family. I was pretty excited about the glowworm tour despite friends saying it isn’t that spectacular. Turns out they were right, the glowworm tour was underwhelming. It’s just the pictures on the website made it look amazing. Kinda bummed the glowworms weren’t so glowy🤣 the tour went by fast and before I know it
the tour ended. On the other hand, Ruakuri cave was a whole different experience. The tour guide was funny and interactive, that helped. The cave was huuuge and mazelike, lots of different rock formations that are beautiful. The family enjoyed it thoroughly
All in all, it was okay. The fam had fun so all good. @tipzky

I was in the basic cave tour and it was definitely worth it! The glow worm caves were amazing. @thenaturalkyle

Yes it was good, I’d definitely do the Black Water Rafting company tour because you get up close to the worms and as I understand it you are pushed through the walking/boating tour like sheep. I did the Black Labyrinth tour but I wish now I had done the 5 hour zipline abseiling one instead as the labyrinth didn’t have enough thrilling bits for me. I hope you find the right tour for you.
Let me know how you get on. @stephmabob

Waitomo Caves was really nice to see. You cannot take photos in the cave, but it was a memorable sight. I used Japanese tour.(sorry). @raspberryrocket

I did the 3 hour Labyrinth and it was amazing @Sarelizstrau

I’d highly recommend Waitomo Caves. We did the Black Labyrinth tour, which any beginner (including my nervous mom) could do. Had it just been me, I would’ve done the longer and more adventurous Black Abyss option. I think they are definitely worth it. Funny tour guides who took care of everything we needed, including any phobias of individuals in our group. @kreed_wyo

I’ve been telling everyone about our experience. I’ve been in caves before and came with the sarcastic thought “Rock and darkness and bugs…wonderful”.

But our 9:30 AM tour guide was amazingly humorous and the rock formations blew me away. Our first glimpses on the glow worms were amazing and seeing them in the light was jaw-dropping. Best of all, the silent float under the underground night sky was breathtaking. It was like floating in space. And with the eels and fish in the river, I told my son it is the place to live out the apocalypse if it happens to come when he’s living in NZ. @revtreviam

we went on the Most Popular Combo tour (Waitomo Glowworm Cave + Ruakuri Cave), which I believe was definitely worth it, especially if it’s your first glowworm viewing experience! @mianco

CONCLUSIONS & TIPS FOR VISITING

Well, if you’ve read all the responses you’ll know that the overwhelming response was yes the Waitomo Caves are worth it. Price be darned! Although there are some free options that people tended to like as well.

From the answers above, the most popular tour was the Black Labyrinth Tour which is the one I did. Most people enjoyed it, but I was glad @stephmabob had a similar opinion to me, and that adrenaline junkie should take the abseiling tour.

Below are a few of the key tips I took away from the responses:

• If you’re super confused about which tour to take, the i-Site in Waitomo is super helpful and can help you with your booking.
• If you’re booking a tour, the tours at the start and end of the day tend to have fewer people on them.
• There are free experiences you can have in and around Waitomo if the budget is your main concern.
• The packages with multiple tours offer good value but can be repetitive.
• Roselands has a Beef Casserole all you can eat dinner buffet for $15 (good value even if you just want the potatoes and veggies).

Having thought a little more about the responses, I decided to post a simple poll on an NZ Backpackers group on Facebook. I simply asking ‘Are the Waitomo Caves worth visiting?’ with a yes/no box.

I figured this would be not quite as convincing in advance, but the results are below. 72% of people said the Waitomo Caves are worth visiting. Note, as this is a backpackers group it’s likely the audience is more budget concerned so of course the comments section included the suggestion of visiting Waipu Caves and other free caves could be a nice alternative.

I’m not sure if there is a negativity bias on Facebook for a poll like this, so make it of what you will 🙂

My conclusion: If the budget is really a concern, opt for a free tour. If you’re going because of your FOMO (fear of missing out), that’s not a great reason to go. If you’re in NZ and looking for a wicked experience, there’ll likely be a tour that can satisfy you. Adrenaline junkie? Go on the Black Abyss tour (check for discounts on BookMe).

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If you have any questions at all about this post feel free to leave a comment below, connect with people who have answered above or ask me a specific question via Watsapp at +642041702764.

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