Waitomo and Te Anau are not the only places the glowworms live. Here is what else exists, and how much of it we can vouch for.
The short answer
Besides Waitomo and Te Anau, glowworms live throughout New Zealand, for example in the Waipu Caves and the Kawiti caves in Northland. Near Waitomo, Down to Earth’s private farm cave near Te Kūiti and the Spellbound caves are bookable here. Aranui Cave at Waitomo is a formations cave and does not advertise a glowworm display.
Pick a day, or the first and last day you are near Waitomo, Te Anau or Auckland. We check the booking calendar of each cave tour and show which ones still have places.
Cave: Private farm cave near Waitomo
Cave: Spellbound caves, Waitomo area
Duration, photo rule and access for each tour; every card opens to the full details.
Small-group caving in a private cave on a family farm: about 2 hours underground, wading, climbing and crouching. Phones welcome, the guide takes photos. Age 12+, own transport.
A small-group trip into a privately owned cave system on a family farm in the Waitomo district, away from the crowds and the developed show caves. After about 15 minutes of preparation and a safety briefing, you walk 10 to 15 minutes through native bush and the Mangapū Gorge to the entrance, then spend around two hours underground: walking, wading through shallow water, climbing over rocks and crouching through smaller sections, with larger chambers and glowworm displays along the way. There are no paved paths or handrails, no boat and no abseiling.
The group is limited to eight people, and caving clothing and boots are provided; afterwards there are showers, tea, coffee and biscuits. Phones and small cameras are welcome, and the guide takes photos of the group that are sent to you afterwards. This is the operator's regular group tour, not to be confused with the same operator's private photography tour. You arrive under your own steam: no transport is offered.
1199 Oparure Road, Te Kūiti (Waitomo district). Arrive 15 minutes early. No transport is offered.
Taken from the operator's own listing on the booking platform; photo and age rules as stated there.
Glowworms without Hobbiton: a 9-hour small-group day from Auckland to the Spellbound caves, with a boat ride under the glowworms and CBD hotel pickup. Gentle walking; lunch not included.
A glowworm day trip from Auckland that does not go to the Waitomo Glowworm Caves themselves but to Spellbound, a separately run, guided cave experience in the Waitomo area. The day runs in a small group of up to 11: about 2.75 hours by air-conditioned van to the caves, the guided Spellbound visit, a one-hour break in Otorohanga and the drive back. At Spellbound you visit a glowworm cave with a boat ride under the glowworms and a second cave, Te Ana o Te Atua, with the guide explaining the geology, the history of the caves and the glowworms' life cycle.
Hotel pickup and drop-off in the Auckland CBD, bottled water, light snacks, tea and coffee are included; lunch in Otorohanga is at your own cost. The walking is gentle (up to 40 minutes at a time on easy paths, no climbing, crawling or stairs inside the caves), but it is not suitable for wheelchairs or walking frames, and a 40 cm step is needed to get into the van and the raft.
Pickup and drop-off at one of 20 hotel pickup points in the Auckland CBD. You choose yours at checkout.
Taken from the operator's own listing on the booking platform; photo and age rules as stated there.
The New Zealand glowworm (Arachnocampa luminosa) is not confined to Waitomo and Te Anau. The official tourism portal says glowworms are found throughout New Zealand, gathering in dark, damp spots like caves and forests. This page collects the sites that come up in research and traveller questions, sorted by how much we can actually verify. Where we have not checked something, we say so instead of dressing it up.
You do not have to leave the Waitomo district to get away from the main visitor site. Two separately run cave experiences nearby are bookable here. Off the Beaten Track by Down to Earth takes a small group of up to eight into a privately owned cave system on a family farm near Te Kūiti: about two hours underground, wading, climbing over rocks and crouching, with glowworm displays along the way. It starts at age 12, and you drive to the meeting point yourself. Spellbound is reached here on a small-group day trip from Auckland: a guided visit to a glowworm cave with a boat ride and to a second cave, Te Ana o Te Atua, with gentle walking and no stairs inside the caves.
North of Auckland, the Waipu Caves have stalactites, stalagmites and glowworms, and the official tourism portal describes a walk of about 1.5 hours around them. We have not yet verified a bookable product well enough to list it with a price and a button, so for now Waipu stays a pointer: if your route runs through Northland rather than south past Waitomo, it is worth a search. For a first glowworm experience with guiding, boats and infrastructure, Waitomo and Te Anau remain the documented choices.
A few kilometres south of Kawakawa, the Kawiti caves are owned and run by the Kawiti family; the official tourism portal describes a 30-minute guided tour along a boardwalk through a 200-metre limestone cave system. We have not verified specific tours, prices or current opening on the booking platforms, so the same rule applies: a pointer, not a recommendation. If you are planning a dedicated glowworm outing, Waitomo and Te Anau are the documented choices.
One clarification helps at Waitomo itself: the operator runs more show caves than the Glowworm Caves and Ruakuri. Aranui Cave is visited for its limestone formations; its tour page talks about the formations, does not advertise a glowworm display, and allows photography and video. If glowworms are the point of your visit, the boat tour and Ruakuri are the tours that show them at the main visitor site, and the smaller caves above have glowworms of their own; treat Aranui as a geology add-on, not a substitute.
According to the official New Zealand tourism portal, glowworms of the same genus live in Australia too. Viewing sites there are outside what this site covers: we focus on New Zealand’s caves, where we can verify the tours we list. If that changes, this page will grow a section rather than a footnote.
Every tour on this site is listed with live data and a working booking link, and that requires verification we have only completed for the Waitomo and Te Anau tours. The Northland sites above are real, but we will not put a booking button next to something we have not checked. When a Waipu or Kawiti product passes verification, it will appear here properly.
Yes. The official tourism portal says glowworms are found throughout New Zealand, and the Waipu Caves and the Kawiti caves in Northland are two such sites. Waitomo and Te Anau are the places whose tours we have verified; the smaller sites are worth a look if they are already on your route. Near Waitomo, two smaller, separately run cave experiences are listed here with a booking link: Down to Earth’s private farm cave and the Spellbound caves.
If you are in Northland, it can be worth a stop: the official tourism portal describes a walk of about 1.5 hours around the caves, with stalactites, stalagmites and glowworms. We have not verified a bookable tour there yet, so we cannot vouch for prices or current details. Check them before building a day around it.
Its tour page does not advertise a glowworm display: Aranui is visited for its limestone formations, and photography is allowed there. At the main Waitomo visitor site, the Glowworm Caves boat tour and the Ruakuri walking tour are the tours where you see the glowworms.
Yes, in places. The official tourism portal says glowworms gather in dark, damp spots like caves and forests, and lists forest experiences as well. This site only documents the organised cave tours we can verify, so treat local tips as a bonus rather than something we can confirm.
They are related: according to the official New Zealand tourism portal, glowworms of the same genus live in Australia. We have not verified tours there, and this site covers New Zealand’s caves only.
