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A 35+ year Pedigree

Founded in 1989 by a group of New Zealand’s top cavers
From 5 visitors in our first year to more than 10,000 annually!
GlowWorm Specialists – Waitomo without the crowds (or concrete!)

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Purpose-built Café and Adventure Centre - Charleston

We operate from the small town of Charleston on the West Coast of the South Island – it’s an old Gold Mining town that used to have well over 12,000 residents in the 1860’s. These days it’s much more sleepy with a permanent population of about 70!

Our base is purpose-built with dedicated facilities for our activities such as changing rooms, hot showers, gear cleaning and storage, reception and waiting areas, as well as a large carpark that can accommodate full size coaches.

Our modern café specializes in home-made food and great coffee! We have a well-stocked gift shop with local crafts and souvenirs, as a well as a panorama viewing deck featuring 360 degree views from the ocean to the majestic Paparoa Ranges

�All of this is on the doorstep of the Paparoa National Park and the beautiful Waitakere Nile River

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Three Family-friendly Options

Underworld Rafting

GlowWorm Cave Adventure

Nile River Rainforest Train

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Underworld Rafting

4 hour adventure, ages 10 and up
New Zealand’s best GlowWorm display
Spectacular highly decorated upper levels�of Te Ananui Caves
Fun on the river
Moderate level of fitness required
Group size: 8 visitors to 1 guide

Trips Daily at 9AM and 11:30AM (NZDT) or 10AM (NZST)

Our Underworld Rafting is a four hour adventure suitable for ages 10 and up.

It’s a unique adventure for two reasons: number 1 is definitely our incredible GlowWorm display – the sheer number of them is unequalled in any other showcave in New Zealand. But reason number 2 is the pristine, unmodified cave – it’s so rare to be able to see a cave in its natural state, experiencing the splendor and wonder just as the first explorers did.

The tours starts with a warm welcome at our purpose-built base. We kit our visitors out from head to toe with a custom 2-piece dive wetsuit and all of the gear they need to stay safe and warm.

After a short trip on Dorothy or Cecil, our Nile River Rainforest Trains, our intrepid explorers pick up their tyre tubes and climb high above the valley floor to the Triclops entrance of Te Ananui, the Metro Cave system.

These caves were first mapped in the 1960’s with over 8 km of passageway recorded, making it one of the top ten largest caves in New Zealand. It’s also one of the most beautiful, with enormous galleries of stalactites, stalagmites and other calcite decorations. Some of these are as large as 4m tall!

We walk down through these ancient upper levels, learning about how they have formed, and hearing stories from the knowledgeable local guides about the first explorers.

Ever deeper, we arrive at the newest part of the cave, where the Ananui stream itself flows, forming a large subterranean lake. We link into a chain in our tyre tube rafts and the electric lights go out, only to be replaced by the spectacle of the lights of Arachnocampa luminosa, the New Zealand GlowWorm!

Thousands upon thousands of these line the ceiling of the cavern above the lake, and we serenely float through by their light. Tourism New Zealand tells us it’s “New Zealand’s best GlowWorm display!” … And we’d definitely agree!

Finally we return to the daylight on the water, exiting the cave well upstream from where we went in. A series of small but fun rapids on the main river take us back to Dorothy or Cecil the trains, then back to our modern base for a hot shower!

It’s a unique adventure in a very special environment.

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GlowWorm Cave Adventure

3.5-4 hour adventure, all ages
A stunning GlowWorm display
Spectacular highly decorated upper levels�of Te Ananui Caves
Moderate level of fitness required
Group size: 10 visitors to 1 guide

Trips Daily at 9AM and 11:30AM (NZDT) or 10AM (NZST)

Heading into the same beautiful Te Ananui Metro caves as our Underworld Rafting, this tour is for those who want to see the very best in a real, unmodified cave system, but want to stay dry!

Starting with the same short train ride, the GlowWorm Cave Adventure follows the same initial path as our Underworld Rafting.

Taking in beautiful formations, sculpted passageways and colourful anecdotes, we travel right through the mountain to the spectacular Main Entrance of the cave all the way in the next valley!

This is the entry point of the Ananui Stream itself, and is home to an enormous colony of GlowWorms. We get to see them both up close and at a distance in their thousands upon thousands.

Your visitors will learn all about the GlowWorm’s lifecycle, what they eat, and of course, what makes them glow!

Finally, they’ll head back out through the cave, back on the train and back to our base at Charleston for a coffee or perhaps a delicious home-made Kiwi pie.

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Nile River Rainforest Train

Allow 90 minutes, all ages
2.5km each way on “Dorothy” or “Cecil”
500m walk amongst the lush West Coast Rainforest
View new caves and the deep limestone canyon
Group size: 36+

Trips Daily at 9AM and 11:30AM (NZDT) or 10AM (NZST)

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Behind the Scenes

Sole concession holder – DoC
35+ years of experience
AdventureMark certified operator
Full public liability insurance
Members of TIA, ACKMA and NZSS
Extensive industry consultation and involvement
Google Reviews 4.5/5, TripAdvisor 4.7/5, with both Certificate of Excellence and Traveler's Choice awards (top 10% of activities worldwide!)

We are privileged to be custodians of the Metro Ananui caves in the Paparoa National Park

We operate our tours under a Department of Conservation concession, of which we are the sole holders.

We maintain full accreditation for our activities via AdventureMark and are audited on an annual basis for safety and compliance.

Full public liability insurance for $2.5M NZD is maintained.

We also keep memberships and maintain active dialogues with professional and industry bodies such Tourism Aoteroa, the Australasian Cave and Karst Management Association and the New Zealand Speliological Society

Finally, we pride ourselves on high quality feedback from visitors, maintaining consistently high scores on Trip Advisor and Google Reviews.

We’ve won multiple Trip Advisor Certificates of Excellence over the years and even a Traveler's Choice award!

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caverafting.com ��contact@caverafting.com��+64 3 7888168�