We did the 5 hour Black Abyss tour. It was incredible and will blow your mind! The beauty inside... read more
1,555
85
12
7
8
Waitomo Adventures
1227 WaitomoValley Rd, Waitomo Caves 3943, New Zealand
Open today: Closed
Review Highlights
“A glowy magical wonderland”
stephieb47
, County Cork, Ireland
“Unique, breathtaking adventure”
An absolutely incredible (and unique) experience!! Breathtaking sights to witness, not to mention... read more
livjowl3
Jennie K
Auckland, New Zealand
112
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All reviews lost world haggas honking holes ladder climb hour epic haggis new zealand glow worms hour tour fear of heights free photos caving experience comfort zone felt safe awesome adventure thanks guys rock climbing once in a lifetime
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274 - 279 of 1,667 reviews
Scenic618353
5
But seriously, the abseiling was so much fun! This tour company is small and had a very warm atmosphere. They also seemed very knowledgeable and made the experience fantastic. Probably one of the best guided tours in New Zealand!
Date of experience: June 2019
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
haleymahony1
2
I had the best experience abseiling with Scott and Shauna. They were very knowledgeable and helped make sure we were relaxed and not scared. It was so much fun abseiling down the waterfalls and crawling through the caves. Definitely recommend doing the Haggas Honking Holes while in Waitomo!!
Date of experience: June 2019
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
marcy s
Vancouver, Canada
284132
If you have any fear of heights, this is not for you. If you want to do an unusual and exciting excursion, this is it! We spent 20 - 30 minutes getting our gear, putting it on and walking to the caves. The guides (2 guides for 6 people) took us a small walk to ensure we knew how to use the safety harness and that we were comfortable using it. At no time did I feel unsafe or unprepared. The staff are very knowledgeable and made sure we were well taken care of.
From there it was into a lost world!! They have a platform built into a hole in the ground. You can't see the bottom!! So cool!! The guides hooked us up, last minute instructions on how to use the ropes and down we go! Hanging in the middle of the cavern, nothing above or below us.
At the bottom, the guides were informative and we had ropes to lead us out of the caves. A small snack was provided, as you will go through a lot of energy during this tour! There are plenty of places where you're scrambling over rocks and hopping over under water streams. At one point, we're in a cavern and they had us turn our lights off. That's when we could really see all the glow worms on the rocks above us and the gossamer strands they would hang from in search of food. The final bit was climbing a 100 step ladder to the top before heading back to base. What a great day!!
For safety and timing reasons, we were not allowed to take cameras or phones with us. But obviously we all want pictures. So the staff take pictures of us while abseiling and at various noteworthy spots in the cavern.
Date of experience: December 2018
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
TrishAnd5
52
via mobile
The tour itself was very good and well led by two instructors Iain and Shawna. Amazing views throughout of the Lost World and through the caves with a fun abseil at the start. Instructors provided good information on the caves history itself and of the formations seen along with the glow worms.
Safety checks were paramount and a good intro to using the equipment was given at the start.
The downside however was that our trip was finished an we were back at the main site within 3 hours. With the drive to and from and gearing up the cave section itself was less than 2 hours. Poor value for money considering it is advertised as a 4 hour trip.
Date of experience: June 2019
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
WaitomoAdventures, General Manager at Waitomo Adventures, responded to this reviewResponded 11 June 2019
Firstly thanks very much for your generous words about the tour and the guides - which are much appreciated !
With regard to the duration of the tour, initial inquiries indicate that your tour was indeed completed in approx 3 & 1/4 hrs. We agree that this is less than the advertised duration of approx. 4 hours. Whilst there can be some variability in tour duration because of many factors (including e.g. cave conditions; the number of people on the departure and client fitness levels) we deem this duration insufficient.
Our guides have an excellent culture & long history of giving the best possible tour so I will be talking to them about this departure. At this point, the only mitigating factor I can identify is that there were two guides where normally there would be only one. This was done for training (ironically including quality assurance) reasons and on this occasion would have resulted in the guiding duties being shared. It would have saved a lot of preparation time. However, in such circumstances the guides are empowered to deliver even more information and commentary on various aspects of this amazing cave system.
So we'll look further into why this didn't happen as well as it should have. In the meanwhile please accept our unreserved apologies and you are encouraged to contact me directly to talk further about it if you so wish.
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC
sarahbR298KK
Auckland Central, New Zealand
5
via mobile
Highly recommended tour. Massive thanks to Joel our guide. Joel was calm and relaxed but you felt he was totally in control and everyones safety was his first priority. A very competent caving guide and also really knowledgeable about the area and what we were seeing. I’m terrified of spiders but only saw one at the very end!
Loved it and we’ll be back. Thank you Joel!
Date of experience: May 2019
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.