MacsTravel Blog

Today was a travel day. We were heading to Tongariro National Park and the wide open spaces of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, one of the most famous one day hikes in the world.

But first, a detour.

Robin had booked a visit to see the Glow Worms with Down to Earth Travel as a side trip from Rotorua for an 8:30 am start. After a little investigation we determined that we were more than two hours away, so we called and spoke to the gregarious Ash who switched us to a 1:00pm tour. Perfect! We could stop on our way to Tongariro. Robin had assured me it was a short walk into the caves to see the glow worms. As someone who had battled with some vertigo in 2022 I felt I could probably handle that much “spelunking” and not much more.

I quickly determined that this was no quick peek at the caves as Ash peppered us with questions, safety forms, “cave clothes” and equipment. We emerged from the change room looking like extras in a Christmas movie.

Waitomo is Māori for water-hole, but what we were going to experience was exploring a series of caves with a river running through them.

It was a small group which was great: a young French couple on a work visa who had just finished a month of fruit picking, Spanish honeymooners and a lone German.

We started walking through more bucolic Kiwi farmland until we came to a trail and some wooden steps that descended deep into a narrow fern and vine filled canyon. It was otherworldly. We learned that this area of New Zealand is peppered with underground caves and rivers.

After exploring the canyon and the small river flowing through it we set off upstream following the river into an appropriately ominous opening. In keeping with the Lord of the Rings theme we half expected Gollum to emerge. I did find a ring though! ; )

Within minutes we were ducking under stalactites, crawling in the water through small tunnels and squeezing through narrow crevices. I followed hard on Ash’s heels knowing that any initial hesitation on my part would only escalate my anxiety.

Robin kept shooting me worried glances but after the first few tight squeezes the cave did open up considerably into some beautiful caverns. The worst was certainly over in terms of claustrophobia but there was significant rock scrambling, shimmying and scaling as we wound our way through the caves.

As you can see from the photos it was pretty spectacular. I did on occasion wonder about the wisdom of crawling around under several tonnes of rock in a seismically active zone, but pushed that thought to the back of my mind.

Once we were deep enough we gathered together and turned off our lights so we could see the glow worms.

These little maggots set out fine threads of webbing and attract small insects through their bioluminescent glow. It is pretty spectacular: you feel like you are looking at some strange new constellations.

We were in the caves for about two hours. We came out the other side through a cathedral like cornice of rock arching overhead. We climbed up through the lush tropical vegetation and emerged once again on the hills of the sheep farm which hosted the tour.

If you are ever in New Zealand and wanted to do this, we would highly recommend Down to Earth Eco Tours.