Hey everyone! Lauren here to tell you about our busy day visiting a filming location from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey called Hairy Feet Waitomo AND going on a 4 hour caving adventure in the Waitomo Caves!
Hairy Feet Waitomo
Some Middle Earth Background
Gerrod and I are both huge fans of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and were excited to hit up some of the filming locations while we were in New Zealand. When we were researching Lord of the Rings filming locations, we stumbled upon a place in Piopio with a tour company called Hairy Feet Waitomo. Hairy Feet Waitomo is actually a filming location for The Hobbit films, and since I am not a huge fan of the movies I wasn’t sure whether it would be worth a visit.
The location was also on private land which means we needed to pay for a tour. However, the tour had excellent reviews, all saying it was one of the best “Middle Earth” tours people took in New Zealand. So, Gerrod and I decided to give it a go!
Getting to Piopio Hairy Feet Waitomo
We had to wake up at 6am to get to the 10am tour which was very early for us. We were staying in Rotorua which was about a 2 hour drive from Piopio, and also had a caving tour booked at Waitomo Caves at 1pm, meaning we couldn’t make the afternoon tour. After preparing for the day, we were on our way through the New Zealand countryside!
About Hairy Feet Waitomo
Hairy Feet Waitomo is located on a sheep and cattle farm in the Mangaotaki Valley property near Piopio. It is owned by Warrick and Suzie Denize, a third generation of the Denize family on the farm. The farm is dominated by the Denize Bluffs, which are massive limestone cliffs full of beautiful rock formations and native forest.
Arriving at Hairy Feet Waitomo
When we arrived at Hairy Feet Waitomo, we were greeted by Suzie and a very cute dog in the shop. We didn’t book the tour ahead of time, but luckily they had 5 open spots for the 10am tour! After paying for the tour, Suzie got out some awesome Middle Earth swords and took our picture in front of the beautiful bluffs! She had Gandalf’s sword Glamdring and Thorin’s sword Orcrist, along with a fun Gandalf hat and staff. The swords were very heavy!
After taking obviously amazing photos, Gerrod and I looked around the shop and waited for the rest of the tour group to arrive. There was a cuddly kitty in the main building that I got to pet, which passed the time quickly.
The Hairy Feet Tour
The tour began with a video on how the site came to be a filming location for the movie, and how it has impacted the farm since! After the Hobbit was filmed, the farm has also been the location of other films and commercials, including a Budweiser Superbowl commercial “Dilly Dilly!”
Denize Bluffs
Following the video, we began our tour! Warrick took us up to the beautiful bluffs and showed us specifically where the movie was filmed. The Denize Bluffs are stunning, and I can easily see why someone would want the area to be in their movie. After looking at the bluffs, we went into the woods where some of the Trollshaws Forest scenes were filmed. This is where Bilbo found his sword “Sting”, and they even had a fake Sting there so we could recreate the scene!
I loved the inside stories he told about the movie making process, including a local accommodation shortage and playing pranks on some of the security guards in the area! He even had pictures of the filming location, which made it easy to visualize what the film set would look like. Gerrod and I got to recreate several scenes, and as movie fans this was so much fun.
The Hairy Feet Waitomo tour was definitely worth the trip and was a great experience. It was so interesting learning about the family’s perspective on movie making, and their farm was so beautiful!
Waitomo Caves: Lost World 4 Hour Tour
The Waitomo Caves is on most lists of North Island ‘must sees’, so of course it was on mine. When Gerrod and I were searching on the Bookme site that our Airbnb hosts recommended, we found an amazing deal for the Waitomo Adventures Lost World 4 Hour Tour! My brother had visited the Waitomo Caves, and had done a tour with Waitomo Adventures and highly recommended it, so of course we booked it.
Our drive to the Waitomo Adventures building from Piopio took us about 45 minutes. After we checked in, we had to sign medical waivers. After waiting for 10-15 minutes, our guides greeted us alongside our fellow cavers, and our adventure began!
Preparing for Our Cave Adventure
Our tour began with a van ride to an equipment building near the tour. The cave was on private land, so we got to ride through some cow fields on the way to the cave! At the equipment building, we were provided with stylish blue jumpsuits, rubber boots, helmets with lights on them, and a harness for rappelling/abseiling into the cave!
After we were all suited up, we headed down near the cave to practice using the equipment. There was a guideline set up, and each member of our group practiced clipping with our carabiners while our guide made sure we were doing it correctly. There were 6 cavers total, and two guides. I was pleasantly surprised by how small our group was!
After we all passed the safety test, we walked down to the platform where we would rappel into the cave!
Caving
The drop from the platform was 100 meters down into the cave! The entrance was foggy, and there were green plants all around the entrance! Our guides made sure we were all hooked into the rappel/abseil ropes correctly, and soon we were descending into the cave! It took us around 20 minutes to get all the way into the cave.
Our group was split by having one guide with one couple, and another guide with us and another couple. The other couple got to the bottom of the cave first. I wish we could have gone a little faster, as my legs were beginning to go numb, but our guide did get an epic picture of us descending into the cave!
When we all got to the bottom, we began our walk into the cave. The cave was very moist, and there was a small stream running through the bottom. Our guide told us the story of the discovery of the cave. Apparently farm animals were going missing because they were falling/getting stuck in the cave before they found the entrance!!
There were several boulders we got to scramble over, and one of our guides took cool shadow photos of us while we enjoyed some hot tea and chocolate. While we were near the stream in the cave, we saw a longfin eel in the water! It was super cool, as the eel can only be found in New Zealand, and I had never seen a freshwater eel!
Glowworms
When we were deeper into the cave, we sat on a ledge and our guides told us to turn the lights off and look up. Above us, were tons of glowing worms! They glow blue, and look like tons of beautiful stars on the cave ceiling. While the group were marveling at the beauty of the worms, one of our guides told us a little bit about how gross they actually were.
The glowworms are actually fungus gnat larvae. The larva hangs a silk thread off of the cave ceiling, which it regularly places small sticky droplets onto. The blue bioluminescence then attracts prey to come closer, while the sticky droplets on their silk threads catch their food. The gross part (if sticky silk threads isn’t gross enough already), the wonderful glow of the larvae comes from their poo. Even if it is glowing poo, it is really beautiful.
Exiting the Cave
There was a long 90 meter ladder climb at the end of the tour. I was in charge of safely clipping the last few members of our group, so our guides could go ahead and prepare for our exit from the cave. After we got out of the cave, we walked back to the equipment building to take off our cool jumpsuits and boots. Once our gear was off, we hopped back in the van to drive to the office.
There was only one disappointing thing about the tour: we weren’t allowed to bring cameras into the cave. I am sure there is a good reason for this, but it is the only thing I wish was different about the caving tour. They did take pictures for us, and provided them for free, but I really wanted a chance to photograph the glow worms. Either way, I had an amazing time on the Lost World 4 Hour Tour!
Our day ended with a drive back to Rotorua, and packing our bags so we could move on to our next location!
Until next time!
Lauren (and Gerrod)
