The Waitomo Caves are a village and cave system forming a major tourist attraction in the southern Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand, 12 kilometres northwest of Te Kuiti.

The Waitomo Glowworm Cave is a cave on the North Island of New Zealand, known for its population of glowworms, Arachnocampa luminosa. These glowworms are found exclusively in New Zealand and around the size of an average mosquito. This cave is part of the Waitomo Caves system that includes the Ruakuri Cave and the Aranui Cave.
The Cathedral in the Waitomo Cave

The guided tour though the Glowworm Cave brings the visitor through three different levels and begins at the top level of the cave and the Catacombs. The levels are linked by the Tomo, which is a 16 m vertical shaft made of limestone. The second level is called the Banquet Chamber. This level is where early visitors stopped to eat and there is evidence of this in the smoke on the ceiling of the chamber. From here it may be possible to link back to the upper level to see the largest formation called the Pipe Organ but on busy days this area is closed to the public because the build-up of carbon monoxide may be hazardous. The third and final level goes down into the Cathedral, demonstration platform, and the jetty. The Cathedral is an enclosed area with rough surfaces and is about 18 m high making for great acoustics. Many famous singers and choirs have performed here including Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. [1] The tour concludes with a boat ride through the Glowworm Grotto. The boat takes the visitor onto the underground Waitomo River where the only light comes from the tiny glowworms creating a sky of living lights.

The Aranui Cave contains maily of a single horizontal passage with many fine speleothems. It has no cave river and only one entrance. Visitors walk up the main passage and then have to turn around and walk back the same path.

At the entrance of Aranui Cave is a large colony of cave wetas, giant spider-like insects. They are not really spiders although they look similar, but they have only six feet instead of eight. They are closely related to crickets and locusts. Weta is again a Maori language word, which means the ugly one or the spiny one. However, the cave wetas are quite harmless!

Cave wetas are adapted to living in dark places and have a good sense of smell, long legs and antennae to feel their way in the dark. Also they are nearly blind. They leave Aranui Cave only at night forageing on the forest floor for food. During a full moon, they do not leave the cave because there is too much light. Cave wetas are so-called troglobionts, as they live in caves and were altered by the special conditions of the cave.

Aranui Cave is famous for its interesting and beautiful limestone formations. It displays ranges of flowstone, cave coral formations and straw stalactites. Its Cathedral is 20 metres high, stalactites are up to 6 metres long, stalagmites as tall as 3 metres.





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