Waitomo Walkway

Dogs No Dogs

Features River/Creek

This easy trails starts across from the Waitomo Museum and iSite. Look for the pedestrian gate in the fence surrounding the rugby field marked with a DOC sign. From here, head down the driveway toward the marked post at the far end of the field to start your run.

The trail starts by heading through a more densely wooded area. There are a few sets of stairs, one spur trail that heads to a lookout, and a couple connectors to the parking lots. All of the trail junctions are well-signed, and it is easy to follow the pathway. Shortly, you pass a large parking area and head through a short tunnel under the road to pop out by the Waitomo Cave entry. The building is large and has interesting architecture, spanning the entrance to the cave above the river below.

Stay to the right, and the trail follows along the road briefly before you enter into a memorial grove that has been planted with many native trees. The grove is young but still beautiful, and the trail here is quite nice, covered with fallen bark and needles and soft, but not muddy ground (enjoy that while it lasts!)

After passing through this grove, you'll climb over a fence (careful of the barbed wire!) and head across some pasture land - the trail here can be quite muddy and slick, so watch your footing on the small ups and downs.

After climbing over another fence, the trail heads back along the river now cutting through a rocky outcropping. The karst limestone rocks in the area are quite unique as they are layered limestone that has turned a sooty black. The stacked rocks make up both the cliff walls that surround you and the interesting rocky outcroppings that rise dramatically from the verdant hillsides around you.

The trail eventually comes to an end at the Aranui Cave car park where you can choose to continue you run on the bush walk to Aranui or simply turn around and head back to Waitomo the way you came.

Lowland podocarp forest with ferns, rimu, totara, and other native bush. Birds such as paradise ducks, pukeko, and fantails. We also saw very large English hares in several of the pastures.