The Legendary Black Water Rafting Co, Waitomo — Attraction in North Island

Our family of two adults, two teens arrived in Waitomo on the eve of heavy rain, with an early morning booking the following day for the Black Labyrinth tour. They had cancelled tours the previous week and we were pretty sure we would have the same thing happen as the rain increased overnight.

Not wanting to miss the whole experience we booked the Glow Worm Boat Tour for late that afternoon. When the rain (magically) stayed just under the cut off level we were also able to go on the Black Labyrinth the following day.

I'll divide my review into two parts for the two experiences:

Boat tour The boat tour itself was good (I think). We had Lichen as our guide who was just lovely. Unfortunately we also had a VERY badly behaved child in our group who disrupted most of the tour for everyone else. She screamed and threw herself on the ground repeatedly throughout the entire thing so none of us heard any of the tour. This child was out of control to the point that at one part she started swinging wildly on the railings around the stalagmite that the guide had just explained took thousands of years to grow and other members of the tour group ended up having to intervene.

I think the tour under normal circumstances would be good. However, allowing small children to disrupt to that level is not fair on anyone who paid full price for the tour (there was another group of adults besides ourselves who was equally as unhappy). We appreciate the fact that the guide apologised individually to everyone on the tour and I understand this is fundamentally an issue for the parents who chose to take (and keep) a small child in this situation. Ultimately though, we were very unhappy having paid for four adult tickets and having it disrupted to that extent. This was a complete waste of money for us.

Black Labyrinth Utterly fantastic. With the heavy rain leading up to our tour this was really quite a scary experience for me. That said, I'm an anxious person and not as water confident as others in my group and I know others on the tour had all the rush with none of the panic attacks that I did! Had the water levels been more normal I think I would have done better but, due to the increased water pressure, I did struggle at times on this tour.

Due to the level of water in the caves we had three guides. Evie, Oliver and Alistair were absolutely fabulous and couldn't have been more helpful. Because I was quite anxious they made every effort to be on hand and make sure I was okay at each point of the tour. Huge shout out to all three, they are a credit to the company. If they can get me through the cave they can get anyone through it!

All said and done, this was a great tour and I can see why so many people have loved it. My teens loved the waterfall jumps and rapids but my favourite was well and truly the lovely time at the end where you float along with the glow worms above you (after all the scary bits are over!).

Overall the Legendary Black Water Rafting Co is top tier. Incredibly helpful front desk staff, wonderful guides and offering amazing experiences. The only thing I'd suggest is that they review general policy regarding appropriate age ranges for tours and perhaps have some kind of stricter policy regarding the behaviour of disruptive parties on tours. Unfortunately we did feel we wasted several hundred dollars on the boat tour and got very little out of it. Luckily we were able to attend the Black Labyrinth or we would have left with quite a negative impression of the...

Tour was great. Safe and fun experience. Guides were delightful. And the experience was really lovely. We had access to parts of the caves that other people clearly did not. Just by virtue of the way that we were tubing it.

More adventurous than we had imagined. Lots of fun, but the padded wetsuits and boots made me feel really bulky and uncoordinated. A bit tricky to move with all of that on. Also, I’m a little person, (just under five feet tall) so when we were stepping over stones or climbing over slippery rocks with the boots on and the wetsuit with all the padding…it made it difficult. My lack of height comes from my really short legs. I'm long-torsod. My feet don't even touch the ground when sitting in chairs! I know that it's not the tours fault I'm short, but this review many help guide other vertically-challenged folks so they know what to expect.

I’m a fairly fit woman in my mid to late 50s, I dance a great deal, have a personal yoga practice and do a lot of swimming/hiking/ snorkeling, etc. etc., But I’m realizing that my lack of height does make a difference on some excursions. For example, we were on a weeklong hiking experience last year where we hiked several hours, and there were spots along the hike where I honestly could not step down or step up without sitting down or having somebody hold my hand to step up. Hiking poles helped. It was just a matter of not having enough leg length. My legs were not just not that long. It’s a center of gravity thing, if my legs aren’t long enough to step all the way down on something, I have to sit down on something to then put my leg down on the next step. Or risk falling. The same thing applied here when we were in the water and there was a step that was down that was beyond my leg length. Everybody else was taking the steps easily, but my leg literally would not touch the next step, so I would have to sit down and then put my foot down on the next step. This made me feel like I was holding up the group a little bit. Also, I’m hyper flexible, as a dancer, and so even if I could have swung my leg around, with all the bulky things on, it was limiting my movement and the way I could bend and move my leg.

This is not to say we did not have an amazing experience. We did! Rafting down in such a small group and seeing the glow worms was really magical. And I loved hopping backwards off the waterfall on my inner tube. The adventure level was really fun; I just felt like the combination of the bulky wetsuit and my petiteness made it a little more rugged adventure than I would have liked. Still, a gorgeous trip. Very magical. The guides were all very nice as well. Would we do it...

#AvatarInRealLife Very cool people, and very cool experience！！！！ The descending cave entrance is hourglass-shaped, narrowing as you go down. The light gradually fades away, darkness takes over, and only the sound of wind and water remain in the ears. The body spins like a grain of sand in a time hourglass, being drawn into the Abyss, witnessing time reverse.

Beneath the surface, nearly 100 meters down, lies an ancient seafloor from millions of years ago, layered with pancake-like rock formations, a fossil bed. For the first time outside a museum, I saw fossils in the thousands. At the entrance alone, I spotted an extinct sand dollar, various shells, unknown bones, and scallop shells larger than a face. If you look carefully along the way, there are endless fossils and stretches of stalactites.

The most challenging part of stream tracing was jumping into the water from high up with a tube. Though afraid of water and heights, I did it. Afterward, I kept moving upstream—walking, swimming, drifting, or pulling on ropes—towards the innermost part. Throughout the journey, glowworms lit the path like stars in the sky. After greeting the "White Robed Gandalf," I used various methods to travel a few hundred meters further. I cheated a bit since the guide led me through the final stretch.

The easiest part was floating, or rather drifting. Once my eyes adapted to the darkness, the glowworms' light became remarkably bright. I could clearly see many small blue dots flickering like tiny signal beacons.

During a brief rest, I couldn't resist picking up a few rock fragments with fossils and some crystal near my feet. The guide told me they were naturally formed crystals, quite rare.

On the way out, a glowworm adult kept circling me and landed on my shoulder. The adult can't eat or glow, and its five-day lifespan is solely for reproduction. I wondered how much time it had left and if it had successfully laid its eggs.

Five hours felt short, yet it was enough for abseiling, stream tracing, zip-lining, floating, and cave exploration. Enough time to gather the courage to try one new thing after another, and to witness the world's rarest scenery.

Our guide Alester said, "Take your mental picture, and we'll leave here soon."

Well, that's my own mental...