Waitomo Caves & Rotorua including Te Puia Small Group Tour from Auckland
Overview
Available languages
Waitomo Caves & Rotorua Tour, this small group, fully guided day trip combines Nature, Maori culture and two of the top attractions in the North Island together to form the ultimate day trip from Auckland. Led by our famously passionate tour guides, notorious for bringing your journey to life by sharing their stories and rich background knowledge, and run in modern, comfortable minibuses packed with extras ensuring your comfort and safety.
Description
Please be aware that while lunch is not provided on this tour, there will be several opportunities for you to purchase food along the way.
Highlights:
· Waitomo Glowworm Caves
· Te Puia Geothermal Park & Pohutu
· Maori Cultural Village and Arts School
· Rotorua City Highlights
Itinerary:
1. Auckland - Your tour starts in New Zealand’s largest city. As we drive out of the city, your guide will not only set the scene for your adventure today, but also point out and guide you past some of the city’s top highlights.
2. Waikato – Exiting Auckland we drive south through the stunning Waikato countryside, the most extensive farming area in the world. Encounter stunning scenery, mighty rivers, great photo opportunities, beautiful mountains and several farm animals along the way. During this journey we pass through Taupiri which has many interesting sites of
cultural significance including local Maori burial grounds & cultural totem poles.
3. Pirongia - After passing through rich countryside and learning about some local history and the New Zealand Land Wars we stop in this idyllic little town for a quick coffee break.
4. Otorohanga - Continuing our adventure we enter Otorohanga “The Kiwiana capital of New Zealand”. See all things Kiwi as you pass through this unique and charming town.
5. Waitomo Caves – Arriving at our first feature attraction you will be guided through the ancient and amazing caves seeing many different cave formations including Stalactites, Stalagmites and Lime Columns before descending even further underground for your Glowworm experience. Board your glow-worm boat for a cruise on the grotto river with thousands of Glowworms sparkling above you. Unique to New Zealand for over 120 years, Waitomo Glowworm Caves are a must-see for any traveller.
6. Big Bird – On our way to our next destination, Rotorua, we stop outside Big Bird to see and meet some of our local friendly animals. These guys know our guides well and even though we do not have time to go inside the park, the friendly animals will often come to the fences for a photo or two, thrilling guests.
7. Te Puia Geothermal Park – Arriving at our second feature destination, Te Puia, you will receive a fully guided tour to best experience the geothermal and cultural wonders including: Pōhutu Geyser, Māori Architecture, The National Māori Arts School, geothermal craters, geothermal events and even the chance to view a Kiwi bird in the Kiwi viewing house.
8. Rotorua City Highlights – To finish off our Rotorua experience we do a guided driving tour seeing the most famous sites in Rotorua city including: Lake Rotorua, Rotorua Museum, Government Gardens, Whangapipiro (Rachel Spring) & the Blue Baths.
9. Auckland – Sadly we must start to head north again but your day is not over with a fully guided return trip to Auckland.
Optional Extras:
- One-way option from Auckland to Rotorua
Cancellation Policy
Terms: Tours will only run if at least 5 people have booked on the tour, we reserves the right to alter the tour due to weather or operational needs.
A full refund will be issued for cancellations made a minimum of 10 days prior to the scheduled departure time.
What‘s Included
Fully Guided Small Group Tour
Entry Tickets
Water available & snacks provided
Meeting points
Select a meeting point
Options
Reviews
674 reviews
Awesome caves and geyzires
Krun0slavP,,Feb 1, 2026
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00Awsome glownworms and geyzires! The guide/driver Tenis was very kind, patient and ready to help with all our requests.
Simon was wonderful!
134pamelan,,Jan 31, 2026
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00Simon was a very nice, friendly, professional and informative tour guide. Would definitely recommend him. It was a long day, but we covered many different areas outside of Auckland.
Great tour
B2469MMdavidt,,Jan 27, 2026
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00Great small group tour. Our tour guide, Jeoff, could not have been better — his commentary throughout the day was very informative and he was extremely organised. He gave clear instructions so everyone always knew where to be and when. Jeoff was also incredibly helpful with recommendations on where to go and eat outside of the tour. We would have liked a little more free time at Te Puia outside of the guided tour, but it’s a long day overall, so it’s understandable that fitting everything in is difficult.
This Experience is a MUST if You’re Visiting New Zealand !
Explorer26223706074,,Jan 27, 2026
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00We had the pleasure of going to visit the Waitomo Caves and Rotorua with our wonderful driver, Vicky, who made our entire experience extremely pleasant with her caring, lovely personality, and the fun facts about every area we were passing by on our way there and back. As a family of five, we truly enjoyed every moment we spent in each of these places and everything we learned about glow worms, the Waitomo caves, and the beautiful culture of the Māori tribes of Rotorua. We had incredible tour guides for each activity and thanks to Vicky, all the people on our tour bus got to know each other and create connections with each other. I got the amazing, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sing in the Cathedral of the Waitomo Caves and as a lifelong singer, that was probably my most memorable moment of this beautiful adventure.
A whole day tour
702senizy,,Jan 27, 2026
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00I totally enjoyed the tour. Vicky was on time, very accommodating and very informative. She explained everything in detail. The tour was planned well, it was exactly the way it was described, I would recommend Cheeky Kiwi travel to my friends. Thank you for such a lovely day.
Amazing guide
406viktorijaa,,Jan 26, 2026
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00Amazing experience with extraordinary guide. Unfortunately, we have forgot his name but it was a guy from Chile and he had trainee with him. Definitely recommend since amount of guides passion for his job and knowledge definitely took experience to another level.
This was an amazing trip!
Joe S,,Jan 25, 2026
- Review from Viator
5.00Trent, our tour guide, was so wonderful!! This was an all day tour and he made sure to point out all of the sites along the way to Roturua and answered any questions we had. He provided snacks and drinks and made sure we were comfortable during our tour. Seeing the Glow Worms was amazing!!!! And so were the geysers at Te Puia! We highly recommend taking this tour!
This was an amazing tour!
BackPacker770264,,Jan 25, 2026
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00Trent, our tour guide, was so wonderful!! This was an all day tour and he made sure to point out all of the sights on the way to Roturua and answer any questions we had. He provided snacks and drinks and made sure we were comfortable during our tour. Seeing the Glow Worms was amazing! And so were the geysers at Te Puia!!! We highly reciting this tour!
Fantastic tour with Alfredo and Sam to Waitomo Cave, Rotorua,TePuia. We were a small group in a luxury van .
346nikkic,,Jan 24, 2026
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00Alfredo really knew the area we traveled to with clever antidotes and made it very interesting. He was a great driver with a fantastic play list . Plenty of breaks on the drive and kept us on schedule. Never felt rushed. I highly recommend traveling with this group.
Great trip
busylady1954,,Jan 20, 2026
- Review from Tripadvisor
5.00This is an unmissable trip, Liam was a great guide - he gave us plenty of interesting information enroute. The thermal springs & geysers were spectacular.
From A$366.38
Auckland, New Zealand
- Free cancellation
Reserve Now & Pay Later - available
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