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The Waitomo Caves are a village and cave system forming a major tourist attraction in the northern King Country region of the North Island of New Zealand, 12 kilometres northwest of Te Kuiti. The community of Waitomo Caves itself is very small, though the village has many temporary service workers living there as well. The word Waitomo comes from the Māori language wai meaning water and tomo meaning a doline or sinkhole; it can thus be translated to be water passing through a hole. These Caves are believed to be over two million years old...
These limestone outcroppings are characteristic of the topology of Waitomo, and are central to the formation of the caves for which the area is so well known.
Waitomo Caves Visitor Centre & Conference Centre
Architect: Architecture Workshop
Completed: 2010
Location: Waikato, New Zealand
Waitomo Glowworm Caves on the North Island of New Zealand is one of the greatest natural attractions of the country. About there being caves and underground river natives have known for centuries. However, their first exploration was made only in 1887.
Local Maori chief , Tane Tinorau , along with an English surveyor Fred Mace sailed to the center on a raft built of flax stems , lighting your way only candles. They came upon a cave , which illuminated the vault of thousands of pale blue lights . They were , as it turned out , the larvae of Diptera Arachnocampa luminosa hanging from the ceiling on a thin and sticky spider's web , attracting its natural light ( bioluminescence ) small insects on which they feed
Photo from Waitomo cave visit. If you look carefully you can make out a few of the glow worms (the blue dots)
So...I had been sort of dreading the Waitomo Caves our whole trip but decided to be a trooper and go for the 5 hour absail / "blackwater rafting" / and rock climb out.
absail down, rock climb out.
(photo courtesy of Kiwi Cave Raft)
The Victorian wing of the hotel was built in 1908 as a government hostel. The Art Deco section seen here was added in 1928. The hostel became a hotel in 1954.
Explorers fascinated by his discovery many times coming down into the ground. Examined the levels of other caves with beautiful stalactite and stalagmite formations and discovered additional easily accessible entrance.
The news of the unusual nature of the miracle spread ever more widely attracting more and more tourists , which for a small fee, guided chief Tane and his wife Huti . This lasted until 1906 when the government took over the administration of the Waitomo .
It took almost 100 years to the caves returned to its rightful owners. Since 1989, they are under the care of the local community , and many guides are direct descendants of Tane Tinorau
Photo sent by Ivan from Waitomo, New Zealand, a district with a population of less than ten thousand on the west side of the north island. He visited there to see their famous Waitomo Caves.