About glowwormcaves.com
glowwormcaves.com is an independent guide to New Zealand's glowworm caves at Waitomo on the North Island and Te Anau on the South Island, and to the tours that visit them. The sections below cover who writes the pages, how the site is paid for and where the tour details come from.
Who writes these cave guides
glowwormcaves.com is run by Patrick Kühne, an independent travel publisher based in Markkleeberg near Leipzig, Germany. His other New Zealand guides include milford-sound-tours.com and waitomoblackwaterrafting.com, the sister site for blackwater rafting at Waitomo. No agency or rotating editorial team is involved: one person researches the cave tours, writes and updates the pages and answers the e-mails.
What the site compares
New Zealand has glowworm caves on both islands, and the tour listings rarely make the differences obvious: the classic Waitomo boat ride is short and bans cameras, the Ruakuri walking tour next door allows photos and takes wheelchairs, the Te Anau caves come with a lake cruise attached, a small-group tour goes caving in a private cave near Waitomo, and the day tours from Auckland either bundle Waitomo with Hobbiton or head to the Spellbound caves. We describe what separates these tours (time underground, the photo rule, how you get there) and show live prices, so you can choose in one place. Bookings themselves happen on GetYourGuide or Viator, not on this site.
How the site is paid for
Book through one of our links and GetYourGuide or Viator pays us a commission out of its own margin; the price you pay does not change. No agreement with a cave operator decides which tour appears first. The tables are sorted by review count, and the recommendations follow the visit (which island, whether cameras matter, whether children come along), not the size of the commission.
Where prices and cave facts come from
Prices, ratings and review counts come from the live interfaces of GetYourGuide and Viator and refresh automatically several times a day. Photo rules, age limits, accessibility and the walking involved come from the operators' own product information and are re-checked regularly. If a photo rule or a duration on this site no longer matches what you find on the spot, tell us and we will fix the page.
Who runs the caves
We do not run any caves or tours and we are not affiliated with THL / Waitomo Caves Group, RealNZ, Auckland and Beyond, Down to Earth or Expedigo. The guides and drivers on these tours work for them, not for us. For binding information such as cancellations, closures or departure times, the operator's own channels take precedence.
Contact
Questions, corrections about a cave or a tour, and press enquiries reach Patrick directly; he usually replies within one or two days. E-mail, postal address and VAT ID are listed in the legal notice.