After a particularly challenging start to our holiday that involved a delayed flight, motion sickness, broken hair clip, and grocery run detour, we finally arrived in Waitomo. We stayed 2 nights in the smallest town I’ve ever visited!
Waitomo Top 10 Holiday Park
We stayed 2 nights at Waitomo Top 10 Holiday Park in their 4-berth Motel Unit. Each unit has a queen bed in the living room, 2 bunk beds in a separate room, bathroom, kitchen, dining area and TV. The kitchen is small but fully equipped with a small fridge, microwave, hob, toaster, coffee/tea facilities, plates and cutlery. It had everything we needed – except for air conditioning.
While we were in Waitomo the weather was quite nice – in the low to mid 20 degrees yet we struggled with the heat that quickly built up in the unit during the day. A single portable standing fan was provided but it wasn’t sufficient. Miss K has eczema that’s triggered by heat so it was a struggle to keep her cool. Then at night we struggled to keep warm when the temperature dropped at night. Our first night was a bit rough!
On our second night we planned our day according to the temperature. After a late night, we all slept in and had a lazy cool morning at the unit. In the afternoon we headed out to avoid the heat. We came back after dinner, enjoyed a dip in the pool and Miss K had a later bedtime around 8pm. Since it was so warm when we went to bed, we totally forgot about the heater so I think if we’d stayed an extra night we would’ve gotten everything perfect!
Despite our difficulties with the temperature, we enjoyed our stay at the holiday park. It was the first time we’d stayed at a holiday park and it was nice to see all the other young families. There’s lots to do with kids including a small playground, trampoline, hot tub, swimming pool, giant chess board, and ping pong table. Other facilities include an offsite kitchen, laundry, toilets, showers, TV, and reading rooms.
The General Store
There’s no supermarket in town but there is a small general store that also serves as a cafe and restaurant. We needed to stock up on groceries for Miss K so we did a big shop in Hamilton before arriving in town. The store has a limited selection of mainly dry packaged goods, canned foods, basic toiletries, milk, and some baby items. While we didn’t buy anything from the store, we enjoyed brunch there.
Waitomo Museum of Caves
A short walk up the road from The General Store is the Waitomo Caves Discovery Centre. Inside you can buy tickets to tours in Waitomo, a small gift shop, and a surprisingly large specialised museum about caves. Entry for adults is usually NZD $5, $2 for kids 10 and under, and free for infants, however they only charged us 1 adult admission for our family.
Inside, there is information about the geology and development of the Waitomo caves, how their explored, local wildlife, local culture and town, and even a cave crawl! My husband gave the cave crawl a go but all he got for his efforts was a scraped hand! There’s even a 40-seat theatre that runs a movie about the life cycle of glowworms.
There’s lots to see, touch, and learn, so a great place for little (and big) kids alike!
Ruakuri Cave Tour
To escape the heat, we took the 3pm Ruakuri Cave Tour. There are other cave tours available but we specifically chose this one as it was pram friendly. We arrived at Ruakuri Visitor Centre and walked across the road to the entrance of the cave. Although the actual cave tour is pram (and wheelchair) friendly just a note that the walk down the loose gravel road to the cave was not so pram friendly!
The tour begun with a long descending spiral case to the entrance of the cave. Our lovely tour guide gave us an informative history about the caves, how it was discovered, the formation of the geological structures inside the cave, how it was built, and the legal fight for the ownership of the caves, which is privately owned today. We also had the opportunity to see glowworms and they were so magical!
Miss K seemed to enjoy herself and fell asleep half way during the tour. She loves the cold, so it was the perfect environment for her to relax and have a snooze!
The tour is approximately 2 hours long and prices are NZD $79 per adult, $30 per child, $190 per family, and free for infants.
HUHU Cafe
HUHU Cafe was located right next door to the Holiday Park, so we had to try it out! The cafe and restaurant is split into 2 different storeys with the cafe at the bottom floor and the restaurant on the upper floor. Unfortunately there was no air conditioning but we were able to get a seat out on the balcony where there was a slight breeze.
My husband ordered the Crispy Pork Hock and I ordered the Fish and Chips. Both were delicious and Miss K enjoyed both dishes! To finish off the meal, we had a Dark Chocolate Brownie, which was a lovely way to finish off the meal and Miss K enjoyed it immensely! It was topped with Black Doris Plum Ice Cream, which was a new flavour for us and so refreshing in the sweltering heat!
Service was lovely and the view from the balcony of the rolling hills was so picturesque. It’s also family friendly and high chairs are available.
Next stop – Rotorua!
Marie xo