A family weekend in Waitomo

We are also fortunate enough to spot one of the facility’s namesakes, a young chick, bobbing nonchalantly as it fossicks for food. We watch as he pauses, feathery bottom turned toward us; a single dropping shines like a fluorescent white pebble in the dim forest. We stifle our giggles until we’re back in the car, wondering just how rare it is to witness a kiwi poo.

We’re travelling in safety and sophistication, buckled into a Mercedes-Benz GLC 350 SUV with a burgundy exterior complementing the golden glow of the autumnal landscapes.  It’s a plug-in hybrid, offering the best of both worlds: a 130km electric range and a powerful engine for the open road.

Road signs alerting to potential kiwi crossings inspire an impromptu game of ‘I spy’, made more challenging thanks to the Merc’s sunroof providing views of towering limestone cliffs.

Massive outcrops tumble from undulating farmland like giant marshmallows in a slice of rocky road as we approach Ripples Retreat in the Mangaotaki Valley, near Piopio. 

We’re greeted at the farm by curious sheep. The boys find a container of feed pellets on the front deck of our cabin and meet the woolly neighbours with breathless excitement. 

It’s just one of many welcoming touches that owners Trudy and Brendan have integrated into the two holiday cabins on their 900-hectare estate. Another is the outdoor bathtub that becomes even more magical at night, cocooned under a starlit sky with the gentle white-noise lullaby of the nearby river.

Earlier, the river had served as the boys’ playground; they spent an afternoon determined to catch eels like the ones we had seen in Ōtorohanga.

When we meet Trudy on a farm tour the following morning, she has her farmer’s hat on but she also spent 30 years as an interior designer, and her experience defines this retreat. Her design expertise is woven into the cabins, from the spatial planning to curated accents.

Bumping along in her 4WD, Trudy shares plans for expansion, as multigenerational families want to take over the property for shared escapes.

The Waitomo region was famously thrust into the global spotlight during filming of The Hobbit; the landscape where Ripples Retreat sits once hosted Hollywood film crews. While many visitors are drawn to the cinematic tours on neighbouring farms, we’re keen to experience another of the area’s wonders – the Waitomo Caves.

Descending the spiral staircase into Ruakuri Cave – one of the most renowned of the region’s 300 caverns – feels like entering an ethereal dreamscape.

At the cave’s deepest point, 53 metres underground, we gaze upward at an unusually flat ceiling, an anomaly amidst the relentless drip of stalactites. Our guide explains that this smooth expanse was once the ocean floor, 25-35 million years ago. Peering closer we find the delicate, fossilised imprints of prehistoric shellfish. We also spot more contemporary relics: the fossilised shells of oysters and scallops, dating back a comparatively recent 5.5 million years!

Over lunch at the Waitomo Homestead we share cave highlights over pizza and hot chips. Nearby, a 7.5-metre apple monument is a playful invitation to sample bounty from the neighbouring orchard: fresh fruit, berries and ice cream.

Our subterranean exploration continues into the afternoon with a tour of the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. Our guide clarifies that these neon-blue bioluminescent beauties are, in fact, the larval stage of a fungus gnat. Re-branding them as ‘glow maggots’, while scientifically accurate, might diminish the allure in tourism brochures, he says. 

I imagine the spine-tingling performance by Kiri Te Kanawa, who once sang in the cathedral. None of us take up the offer to test the chamber’s legendary acoustics.

We glide out of the cave by boat, drifting silently on its still pool, flanked by towering stalagmites. The only sound is the rhythmic drip of water from the stalactites above. Even my typically talkative children are left speechless by the galaxies of glowworms, sparkling like an underground star reserve.