New Zealand Николай Максимович · CC BY 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 66 m.
The real relief above Waitomo Caves, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
66m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
14°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
145m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
14 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 14 °C here, in January and in August. In February the afternoon reaches 24 °C at the entrance, 9 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- 23°15°Jan
- 24°15°Feb
- 22°14°Mar
- 19°12°Apr
- 16°10°May
- 14°8°Jun
- 12°7°Jul
- 13°7°Aug
- 15°8°Sep
- 16°10°Oct
- 19°11°Nov
- 21°13°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Locality in Waikato, New Zealand
Waitomo Caves is a cave in New Zealand. The entrance is at 66 m.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Te Kuitinearest town · 9.9 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.5 km from the entrance
- Hamilton International Airport (HLZ)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 48 km in a straight lineCar hire at ROT airport (Rotorua)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 5other cave entrances within 3 kmWaitomo Cave, Ruakuri Cave - Historic Entrance, Aranui Cave and 2 more
- 2viewpoints within 3 kmGlow Worm Wall
- 2marked hiking routes within 3 kmTe Araroa - 03 Waikato - h Pirongia to Waitomo, Te Araroa - 03 Waikato - j Waitomo to Te Kuiti
- 11car parks within 2 km
- 5information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 2bus stops within 2 km
- 5campsites within 8 kmTent and camper van sites, Roselands Waitomo Caves (Freedom camping for Self Contained Vehicles), Te Kūiti Holiday Park and 2 more
- 14hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmKiwi Paka - Waitomo, Tomo Potz Bed and Breakfast, YHA Waitomo Juno Hall Backpackers and 11 more
- 6restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Te Kuiti9.9 km in a straight line
- Otorohanga12 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Waitomo Caves.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Peakyas6 mountains within 10 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 23 | 24 | 22 | 19 | 16 | 14 | 12 | 13 | 15 | 16 | 19 | 21 |
| Afternoon | 23 | 24 | 22 | 19 | 16 | 14 | 12 | 13 | 15 | 16 | 19 | 21 |
| Night | 15 | 15 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 11 | 13 |
| Rain (mm) | 68 | 75 | 77 | 96 | 115 | 119 | 113 | 108 | 96 | 94 | 73 | 102 |
| Rainy days | 10 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 15 | 16 | 16 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 13 | 14 |
| Sun hours/day | 8.7 | 7.6 | 7.1 | 5.8 | 4.5 | 3.9 | 4.3 | 4.8 | 5.4 | 6.2 | 7.4 | 7.3 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 23 | 23 | 15 | 68 | 8.7 |
| Feb | 24 | 24 | 15 | 75 | 7.6 |
| Mar | 22 | 22 | 14 | 77 | 7.1 |
| Apr | 19 | 19 | 12 | 96 | 5.8 |
| May | 16 | 16 | 10 | 115 | 4.5 |
| Jun | 14 | 14 | 8 | 119 | 3.9 |
| Jul | 12 | 12 | 7 | 113 | 4.3 |
| Aug | 13 | 13 | 7 | 108 | 4.8 |
| Sep | 15 | 15 | 8 | 96 | 5.4 |
| Oct | 16 | 16 | 10 | 94 | 6.2 |
| Nov | 19 | 19 | 11 | 73 | 7.4 |
| Dec | 21 | 21 | 13 | 102 | 7.3 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (66 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 28% | 33% | 118% | 56% | 85% | 117% | 100% | 99% | 99% | 113% | 208% | 63% |
| 2021 | 94% | 53% | 173% | 47% | 92% | 111% | 109% | 117% | 144% | 142% | 90% | 142% |
| 2022 | 15% | 266% | 122% | 42% | 116% | 177% | 193% | 141% | 159% | 171% | 273% | 128% |
| 2023 | 317% | 190% | 111% | 76% | 183% | 95% | 76% | 88% | 172% | 76% | 146% | 147% |
| 2024 | 117% | 69% | 114% | 101% | 89% | 86% | 107% | 113% | 105% | 140% | 115% | 65% |
| 2025 | 57% | 27% | 61% | 115% | 125% | 182% | 213% | 95% | 132% | 216% | 186% | 121% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Waitomo Caves
New Zealand
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 66 mEntrance altitude
- 14 °CInside, all year
Waitomo Glowworm Caves
New Zealand · 1 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 66 mEntrance altitude
- 14 °CInside, all year
Ruakuri Cave
New Zealand · 3 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 90 mEntrance altitude
- 14 °CInside, all year
Wiri Lava Cave
New Zealand · 141 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 46 mEntrance altitude
- 16 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q1071889) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Visit mountains
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Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit 
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Every cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.You are here
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Every viewpoint with its real 360° panorama: the peaks you can name, how far you see and where the sun sets.Coming soonVisit 
birdwatching
Every bird sanctuary and wetland with the species recorded month by month: who is resident, who comes for the summer, who only passes through.Coming soonVisit 
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Every forest with its land-cover rings, what grows and lives in it, and the best months to walk it.Coming soonVisit