The most famous tourist caves in New Zealand are at Waitomo.
The "glow worm cave," with artificial lighting, is comfortable and easy for anybody to take a guided tour. There is a boat ride under a "starry sky," produced by natural lights in the tails of glow worms on the cave roof. More adventurous tourists can join a black water rafting trip.
The caves shown here are "wild caves of Waitomo", visited by speleologists, who take their own illumination for exploration and photography. Glow worms live in all these caves but the magnificent display, with reflections in still water, cannot match the beauty of the tourist cave. However, the limestone formations and speleothems (geological cave things) are better in the wild caves. Special equipment and reliable companions are needed, as caving alone is dangerous. Join a speleological society, otherwise you will never find the caves, let alone safely explore them. For many people, this web site is as close as they will get to the natural underground world of New Zealand
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