Ash is a great guide, knowledgeable and the type of guy you’d grab a beer with. Photography tour is definitely worth the money!
Down to Earth is the most amazing adventure in our 3 weeks family trip to New Zealand. Tour guide Ash is extremely experienced, friendly and knowledgeable everything about local environment. Big thumb up and highly recommend.
This tour is an absolute must do when in the area. We did the private tour so it was just our family of 4 along with the tour guide, Heath. Although it is a bit pricey compared to other tours, it is definitely worth the value. It truly was an amazing experience. The caves have been untouched and remain as nature created them. They provide all the clothing and footwear you need as you will get dirty crawling over the rocks and through the water. The attire adds to the experience. You must be relatively fit as you are crawling through crevices and there is a hike to get down to the caves and back up. The hot shower with drinks, snacks and conversation with the owners at the end was also a nice touch to complete the experience. A truly must do!
Most important to my husband in choosing which glow worm tour to take was his allowance to bring in all of his camera gear. So, we took the photography tour and we couldn’t be happier that we did. Heath ,our guide, knows every nook and cranny of his caves and we very much benefited from his knowledge. He’s also very good company. We also got lucky because Heath took tons of very good photos of us and then allowed us to download them for free! Which was so refreshing after being on tours that would try to make extra money from taking your photo.
This is our third trip to New Zealand and our third trip to Waitomo. We absolutely love the glowworms. I also love photography, but the problem was taking pictures of glowworms is tricky and you could never do that on the tours, and we never really spent enough time viewing the glowworms. And then, I discovered Glowing Adventures which solved all that. We went on the private photography tour so we could have an opportunity to set up the tripod and take as many pictures as we wanted and that is exactly what the tour entails. You first walk through a beautiful forest for a bit and get to the cave. They give you complete gear, boots and clothes and you need it, because through the cave you are walking in mud and through water (yes, you do get wet) to get to the area where the glowworms are. Words cannot describe what it's like when you turn your headlamps off and you slowly see the glowworms appear. We set up the tripod there and, honestly, at this point I just let my boys take the pictures, I just gave occasional advice, and back and enjoyed looking at everything. One of our trip highlights and will definitely go again next time we return to New Zealand.