Situated just 200 kilometres south of Auckland is the picturesque community of Waitomo Caves Village. It is a small rural village of approximately 500 residents which is famous for its limestone caves and glow-worm grotto. It is a busy tourist centre and the main hub for the ever popular Waitomo Caves which attracts over 400,000 tourists each year, including 30,000 black water rafters.
This small, tranquil, tourist village is surrounded by beautiful rolling countryside and is located approximately 6 kilometres west of State Highway 3, between Te Kuiti and Otorohanga along the Waitomo Caves Road. The village offers accommodation, hotel services, cafes, restaurants, the Waitomo Caves Visitor Information Centre and the Waitomo Caves Discovery Centre. There are also several tour operators who provide a range of services and tours of the three limestone caves which are located in the area. These include guided tours, which are the most popular and are ideal for family groups. Visitors are taken through the caves where the guides highlight the wonderful natural limestone formations and proceed into the glow-worm grotto. However, for the more active and adventurous visitors, tour operators provide the opportunity to explore the caves by the exciting black water rafting and the more traditional, but still exciting methods of caving, which includes climbing, crawling, abseiling, squeezing and rope traversing.
There are numerous caves within this limestone area with the best known being the Waitomo Caves System which includes the Waitomo, Raukuri and Aranui Caves, all of which have been developed as tourist attractions. In addition to the primary attraction of the caves, the area also offers the natural attractions of the 17 metre high Mangapohue Limestone Bridge and the Marokopa Falls. Additional activities available near the village including pleasant walking trails and opportunities to enjoy horse riding, jet boating, quad biking, the local wildlife park, the Kiwi Culture Show and the Angora Rabbit Shearing Show. For more information, check out what is available through the Waitomo Caves Visitor Information Centre.
Waitomo District is located in ‘King Country’ which lies in the western central region of New Zealand’s North Island. This area of the North Island is a mainly rural region dominated by tourism, farming, mining and forestry, but is renowned for being home to the popular Waitomo Caves, one of New Zealand’s major tourist attractions.
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