Our final stop in New Zealand was Hamilton, the country’s fourth-largest city, located an hour and a half south of Auckland.
Our main reason for including Hamilton in our itinerary was to experience the Waitomo Glowworm Caves, which, along with Milford Sound, is truly a must-see attraction if you visit New Zealand. From Hamilton, the caves are just over an hour away, while tours originating from Rotorua involve a two-hour drive and from Auckland, a two-and-a-half-hour drive.
We weren’t expecting much else from Hamilton, but we were wrong! Hamilton Gardens was absolutely worth visiting, and the Waikato Museum and Gallery was also worthwhile. We’ll cover all three in this post.
If you search for the Waitomo Glowworm Caves on Google Maps, you’ll probably be directed to a location with a visitor center, museum, and several cave tour options. This seems to be the place where most tourists go. It’s probably a nice way to see glowworm caves, but… It’s the place where most tourists go.
We booked our tour through Get Your Guide, and fortunately, they arranged their tour with a small tour company called Spellbound, which took us to a different glowworm cave, which, as far as we could tell, was only visited by this company. Our Spellbound tour guide was born and raised in the area and knew the history and science of the caves intimately. We were thrilled to experience the cave with our small group and no other tourists around.
Before entering the cave, we passed a stream where we saw eels. One of the people in our group reached down and petted one, and another fed them chicken bits, which they quickly found and ate.
The light-producing organisms in these caves aren’t really glowworms. They are insects, specifically a species of fungus gnat larva. They produce a blue-green bioluminescent light to lure prey (like midges and moths) into sticky web-like snares they hang from the cave ceiling. But “glowworms” probably works better for marketing than “fungus gnat larva,” so that name, however inaccurate, has stuck.
We were issued hard hats to wear while we were in the glowworm cave – not so much to protect us from falling objects, but more for the benefit of the helmet light.
Once inside the cave, we boarded a small boat, which our tour guide propelled up and down the underground stream by pulling on an overhead cable. For the downstream journey, everyone kept their cameras and helmet lights off so we could see the glowworms in total darkness. There were thousands and thousands of them hanging from the ceiling of the cave above us. It was spell-binding, ethereal, and otherworldly.
On the return upstream, we were allowed to take pictures. Even without flashes, our cameras couldn’t adequately capture the wonder of what we were seeing.
For this picture, the guide shone a flashlight from the side, so we could see the silky threads that suspended the glowworms from the cave’s ceiling.
Our guide then took us to another cave, which did not have glowworms but offered some other interesting sights.
This is the remains of a Moa – a bird that became extinct 500 years ago. The bird probably fell through a hole in the ground above the cave into a light shaft and crashed to its death.
Back in Hamilton, we visited Te Whare Taonga O Waikato Museum and Gallery, just down the street from our apartment.
One of the temporary exhibits was the Waiclay National Ceramics Awards 2025, a collection of sculptures, pottery, and ceramics that were submitted for an annual competition. We were impressed with the artistry, craftsmanship, and originality of many of the works.
Other areas of the museum presented the history of Hamilton, displaying dozens of photos from Hamilton’s founding and the decades since; a selection of items reflecting the diversity of the museum’s collection; and Maori heritage, which, we’ve learned, is part of virtually every museum in New Zealand.
Between the museum and our apartment, we discovered this statue of Riff Raff, from the Rocky Horror Show. The theatre to the right is where the first performance of the Rocky Horror Show took place.
We’ve been to many botanic(al) gardens during our travels, ranging from impressive displays of curious, exotic plants from all over the world to nice city parks. But Hamilton Gardens has taken a unique and enjoyable approach; they’ve created 18 thematic gardens representing locations from around the world and various themes.
Here are photos from many of these specialized gardens.
TripAdvisor travelers have rated Hamilton Gardens in the top 1% of global experiences, and one of the Top 3 places to visit in New Zealand. We concur.
We enjoyed one of the best meals of our trip at El Mexicano Zapata Cantina, close to our apartment. We started with house-made jalapeño poppers with chipotle aioli and a pitcher of red sangria. Both were outstanding.
For the main course, Dave ordered Pollo al Mole. The mole sauce was rich and flavorful. Upon sampling it, Jeff remarked that it was almost like melting a chocolate bar over the chicken. Jeff ordered the Enchilada – three layered corn tortillas filled with chicken, on a bed of salsa roja topped with mozzarella cheese, jalapeño aioli, chipotle aioli, sour cream & Pico de Gallo salsa. Both meals came in generous portions with delicious sides.
So yeah… A Mexican restaurant in New Zealand, staffed entirely by Asian people. It was surprisingly authentic and incredibly delicious!