Overview
This summer, dig a little deeper and take your exploring underground. Auckland and the nearby Waitomo have some incredible caves on offer — including ones filled with luminous glow worms, one fitted with a flying fox which hurtles past limestone formations and another which used to host "wild" accordion parties. Read on to find five of our favourites.
Shaun Jeffers
WAITOMO GLOWWORM CAVES
Since its discovery in 1887 by a local Maori chief, Tane Tinorau and an English surveyor called Fred Mace, the Waitomo Caves have hosted weddings, famous singers and packs of general tourists. Access into the Auckland caves is through guided tours only, and tours include a meander through a garden of limestone formations and a gentle boat trip underneath a constellation of glow worms.
Convene at Waitomo Adventure Centre, 654 Waitomo Caves Road, Waitomo, Waikato.
Joseph Michael
NIKAU CAVE
A close second and a little closer to Auckland, Nikau Cave offers a pretty, intimate, hour-and-a-half tour down a cave stream which features glow worms and beautiful limestone chandeliers and sculptures. Nikau is amazingly well preserved — it's been kept entirely in its natural state with no lighting or fittings, and group sizes are limited to minimise any harm to the caves.
1779 Waikaretu Valley Road, Tuakau, Auckland.
ST BENEDICTS CAVERNS
Hidden in a paddock in the Waikato lies the Saint Benedicts Caverns where you have to abseil your way down a 40-metre shaft in order to enter the caves. Once inside the main chamber, you'll be majestically swooping through the aeons-old architecture of stalagmites and stalactites on a flying fox. It's a cave person's cave, no flounce a la en-masse-displays-of-glowing-larvae (glow worms), just some great formations.
Convene at Waitomo Adventure Centre, 654 Waitomo Caves Road, Waitomo, Waikato.
WHATIPU CAVES
Back in the day (post-World War One up until the 1950s) the main cave of the humble Whatipu Caves had a dance floor and played host to "wild" dance parties featuring accordion bands. Guests would rock up on horseback from Karekare or ferry in. Although the wooden dance floor is now covered by roughly five metres of sand, Whatipu still hosts musical numbers from time to time. In 2009, Auckland band An Emerald City recorded their debut album Circa Scaria inside the main cave.
Find the caves along the Whatipu Caves Track at end of Whatipu Road, Huia, Auckland.
Scribbles NZ
BETHELLS CAVE
Bethells Beach has everything: a beach, a sea cave and there's even a pretty sweet waterfall nearby — about a 20-minute walk down the Mokoroa Falls track. The Cave is a cool little site to explore or even set up camp for a little bit while you take a swim. Just watch for the tides and make sure you plan your visit to the cave around the low tide.
End of Bethells Beach, End of Bethells Road, Waitakere, Auckland.
Top image: Bethells Beach cave by Ivan Sanford (Unsplash)