Te Anau's Secret: Breathtaking Glow Worm Grotto Experience

The Glow worm caves are a unique experience. You walk through a cave with a river flowing through it in mostly darkness. You enter a small boat that is pulled around through the cave in silence. The glow looks like little stars or LEDs on the celling and sides of the cave. For us, it was well worth the cost. I don't think you will find many other places to experience them.

Very well organised and informative trip. Cave experience was great. Very unique experience. Presentation after the cave trip was also very interesting.

Pleasant your guides and boat ride. Overall experience was not worthwhile. Cave time was a bit sensationalized . Walkways and darkness are not very accessible or safe for seniors. Our female guide did not have a microphone and was compensating with a high pitched screeching voice which was unintelligible in the echoey cave.

Not about the Glow worm for us it was all about the cave! Wonderful experience and the staff were all professional, kind and knowledgeable.

Very organized, good information about the Glow worms, their life and how they live and glow. Boat trip over and back from Te Anau was pleasant. Hot drink after caves and vefore the short educational presentation was well likjed - nice short walk through the natural forest

The tour was very informative and interesting. They broke you into small groups to make the tour more intimate and so everyone could hear the guide.

I heard from several people that the glow worm caves are a must see. But the only time on the 2 1/2 hour tour that we saw any glow worms was ten minutes, and they were few and far between, nothing like the pictures. I was expecting the cave to be illuminated with hundreds of glow worms. Not so much. The rest of the tour was walking through scary caves, and then a little nature walk and talk. I'm glad I went, but in reality, it was nothing much.

You transfer to the caves via a 30 ish minute boat ride. Where you proceed to walk over terrain that may be challenging to some and not to others to the cave environment where you do have to duck down to pass through certain areas through the cave. You may get dripped on and then you ride a small boat in complete darkness to see the glow worms in their habitat. You then walk back through the cave and dodge a few more formations by ducking and see a cave waterfall. You then watch a presentation about them to learn how they operate before returning to the boat for a 30ish minute very smooth boat ride (when we did it the lake was like glass)

We enjoyed this well-organised excursion. We had a lovely boat trip across the lake. We were divided into small groups for a presentation followed by the tour of the caves, which included a short boat trip in the dark (very dark!). The glow "worms" were interesting but we also enjoyed the caves with the waterfalls and streams.

The tour was well organised and staff welcoming, friendly and informative. The caves are well worth a visit. My only criticism is that I don’t think small children should be allowed on the trip. They aren’t old enough to appreciate the caves and become very scared in the dark, screaming and spoiling it for others.