Black Water Rafting Waitomo

Black water rafting started at Waitomo in 1987 and has become the standard way to see the cave system as an activity rather than a walkway. The basic trip puts you in a wetsuit, helmet and light with a rubber tube, walks you into the cave, and has you jump backwards off a small waterfall into the water and then float the underground river with your lights off, looking up at glowworms on the ceiling - the tubes are linked into a chain so the group drifts together in silence. Longer versions add abseiling into a shaft, a zipline in the dark, climbing waterfalls from below and several hours underground. The water is around eleven degrees and the wetsuits are thick. It is genuinely cold, genuinely dark, and there is a stretch where you are floating in a black tunnel with nothing but the glowworms visible. Minimum ages and fitness requirements apply and are enforced.

What you actually see

• The glowworm ceiling - from the water, lights off.
• The waterfall jump - backwards into the dark on a tube.
• The longer trips - abseil entry, zipline and waterfall climbing.
• The underground river - floated in a linked chain of tubes.

When to go

Any season - the cave holds the same temperature year round. Book ahead; trips run to fixed times and fill in summer. Heavy rain can close the caves.

Honest expectations

The water is about eleven degrees and you are in it for a long time. Minimum ages, height and fitness requirements are enforced. It is not for the claustrophobic. Trips are cancelled when the river is up.

Nearby

The Waitomo Glowworm Caves and Ruakuri are in the village; Marokopa Falls is west.