Glow Worm Cave Tours in Te Anau

Sequestered underneath the mighty mountains on the shores of Lake Te Anau are intricate networks of underground caves, glowing with the light of an amazing number of glow worms.

Sydney Morning Herald has dubbed a glow worm cave visit as one of the most unusual limestone cave experiences ever.

Your adventure begins with a cruise that will take you across the stunning Lake Te Anau on a vessel specially built for scenic cruises.

On the western shores of the lake, you will get off the boat and have a look at Cavern House’s informative exhibits, before your friendly and knowledgeable nature guide takes you into the caves in small groups of no more than fourteen people.

Be awed and astonished by the wonders of this mysterious underground domain. The caves are relatively recent by underground standards at 12,000 years old and are still being moulded by the erosive forces of the river that course through them and that has produced an intricate web of limestone tunnels filled with whirlpools, exquisitely sculpted rock and a wild underground waterfall.

When you are deeply ensconced in the caves, you will board a small boat that will take you into a secret grotto swathed in silence and populated by thousands of glow worms.

The sight of thousands upon thousands of tiny shimmering glowworms quietly illuminating this silent subterranean space is nothing short of sublime.

History of the Te Anau Glow Worm Caves For the longest time, the Te Anau Glow Worm Caves were the stuff of legend. The only indication of their existence lay in the name “Te Ana-au”, which the ancient Maoris had named it and which means “caves with a current of swirling water”.

They remained undiscovered until Lawson Burrows located them in 1948. His curiosity aroused by the ancient Maori tales, he searched for three years before chancing upon a stream emanating from beneath a rock feature on the western shores of Lake Te Anau. The intrepid Burrows submerged himself in the water, squeezed through the opening and emerged in a cave glittering with the light of thousands of tiny glow worms.

Today, it is known that these caves form the lower part of an enormous cave system which stretches all the way to the Fiordland National Park.