It can get quite claustrophobic initially, with you drifting in deafening silence and eerie darkness on a boat in the middle of nowhere. Then came the soft glow above that begins as a faint spot that mushroomed into an illuminated night sky that lit up the gentle ripples beneath you. Except that you\u2019re not floating along a river under a blanket of stars but in a cave below a cover of glow worms, at the famous Waitomo Glowworm Caves at Waitomo in the North Island of New Zealand, two hours south of Auckland.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The Caves earned its name \u201dWaitomo\u201d from the Maori words Wai- water and tomo- hole or shaft, and are a result of over 30 million years of formation with the creation of limestone at the ocean bed. There are now three levels of caves to explore, and begins with the top level- the cave entrance with the Catacombs and its largest formation- the Pipe Organ. The second level, linked to the top by a 16 meter vertical limestone shaft called the Tomo, will lead you to the Banquet Chamber. It\u2019s so named because the area was used by early visitors as a dining hall. The third level takes you down to The Cathedral, an 18-meter tall cavern with superb acoustics, thanks to its natural enclosed design and rough surface. The acoustics are so amazing that renowned singers and famous choirs have performed here.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n

Did you know:<\/strong><\/em> Native New Zealand songstress Dame Kiri Te Kanawa\u00a0and Katy Perry have performed at The Cathedral?<\/p>\n

The highlight of the tour of the Waitomo Glowworm Caves is of course, witnessing the glow worms. A boat ride through the Glowworm Grotto will float visitors to the dark underground Waitomo River lit only by the glowworms. No photography is allowed at any point during the boat ride, so it\u2019s best that you soak in the mesmerising sight instead of trying to sneak in a photo. All visitors are supposed to observe silence, so it\u2019s pretty obvious if there\u2019s a sudden clicking sound. Any sound might turn on the darkness and drive away the glowing ceiling.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Tip:<\/strong><\/em> Wear comfortable shoes and bring along a jacket. There are steps along the caves to negotiate and it might get colder as you get deeper into the caves.<\/p>\n

Why go?<\/strong> <\/em>If you\u2019ve never explored any caves before that offers nature\u2019s gift of gorgeous limestone formation, a trip to the Waitomo Glowworm Caves gives you a pretty stunning view of nature\u2019s underground scenery. The icing on the cake is the pretty sight that the glowworms offer.<\/p>\n

Price:<\/strong><\/em> Adult tickets are priced at $48 while kid tickets are priced at $21. There is also the Family package prices of $110 which consists of 2 adults and 2 kids.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It can get quite claustrophobic initially, with you drifting in deafening silence and eerie darkness on a boat in the middle of nowhere. Then came the soft glow above that begins as a faint spot that mushroomed into an illuminated night sky that lit up the gentle ripples beneath you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[362,361,273,359,360],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegallivantpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1811"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegallivantpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegallivantpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegallivantpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegallivantpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1811"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thegallivantpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1818,"href":"https:\/\/thegallivantpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1811\/revisions\/1818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegallivantpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegallivantpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegallivantpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegallivantpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}