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Waitomo, officially Waitomo Caves, is a rural community in the King Country region of New Zealand's North Island. There are several solutional cave systems in the area around the village, which are popular tourist attractions. Restaurants and accommodation are centred in the village to serve visiting tourists.
The word Waitomo comes from the Māori language: wai meaning water and tomo meaning a doline or sinkhole; it can thus be translated to be "water passing through a hole". The caves are formed in Oligocene limestone.
The historic Waitomo Caves Hotel is located in Waitomo Caves village.
The village of Waitomo Caves is named for the hundreds of caves present in the spectacular karst landscape. The limestone landscape of the Waitomo District area has been the centre of increasingly popular commercial caving tourism since before 1900, initially mostly consisting of impromptu trips guided by local Māori. The Waitomo Glowworm Cave near Waitomo Caves was nationalised by the Crown and managed as a tourism attraction from 1904 onwards. Caving tourism (from ) At this time tourists would set out for the Waitomo Glowworm Cave from Otorohanga or Hangatiki railway stations which had been opened in the 1880s. A 1915 guide said, "The is reached by railway to Hangatiki, thence 6 miles by coach along a good road".Bradbury, E E (1915). The Raglan and Kawhia Districts. Waikato University library: Bradbury. p. 85. There was tourist accommodation at Hangatiki in the early 1900s, and by 1904 accommodation and a store had been built at Waitomo Caves. In 1909 the government built a hotel, and the village gradually developed to support increasing tourism to the caves in the area.
The Waitomo Caves Museum provides information about the karst landscape, caves and caving and the history of the area.
Companies specialise in leading tourists through some of the limestone caves of the area, which are noted for their stalactite and stalagmite displays and for the presence of glowworms (the fungus gnat Arachnocampa luminosa) in caves with streams running through them. Cave tours range from easily accessible areas with hundreds of tourists per hour in the peak season, to activities such as blackwater rafting and crawls into cave systems, which are only seen by a few tourists each day. Tourist caves include:
In 2004, around 400,000 visitors entered caves in the area, and a visit to Waitomo Caves made number 14 on a list of 101 "Kiwi must-do's" in a New Zealand Automobile Association poll of over 20,000 motorists published in 2007.
The Mangapohue Natural Bridge is located 26 km to the west of Waitomo Caves. A short track lets visitors explore the area around the double arch, a remnant of a cave system that has disintegrated.
Te Araroa, a national long distance walkway, passes through Waitomo. The section from Mount Pirongia joins the Waitomo Walkway to enter the village. The section to Te Kūiti goes over Mangapu River suspension bridge and through Pehitawa kahikatea forest.
Hangatiki had a population of 1,254 in the 2023 New Zealand census, an increase of 69 people (5.8%) since the 2018 census, and an increase of 153 people (13.9%) since the 2013 census. There were 642 males, 609 females, and 3 people of other genders in 477 dwellings. 2.4% of people identified as LGBTQ. The median age was 44.4 years (compared with 38.1 years nationally). There were 204 people (16.3%) aged under 15 years, 237 (18.9%) aged 15 to 29, 573 (45.7%) aged 30 to 64, and 240 (19.1%) aged 65 or older.
People could identify as more than one ethnicity. The results were 73.7% European (Pākehā); 37.8% Māori; 1.4% Pasifika; 2.6% Asian; 0.7% Middle Eastern, Latin American and African New Zealanders (MELAA); and 3.8% other, which includes people giving their ethnicity as "New Zealander". English was spoken by 96.9%, Māori by 10.3%, Samoan by 0.2%, and other languages by 4.3%. No language could be spoken by 1.9% (e.g. too young to talk). New Zealand Sign Language was known by 0.5%. The percentage of people born overseas was 11.7, compared with 28.8% nationally.
Religious affiliations were 28.5% Christian, 0.2% Islam, 3.6% Māori religious beliefs, 0.5% New Age, and 0.5% other religions. People who answered that they had no religion were 59.6%, and 6.9% of people did not answer the census question.
Of those at least 15 years old, 174 (16.6%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, 603 (57.4%) had a post-high school certificate or diploma, and 285 (27.1%) people exclusively held high school qualifications. The median income was $39,900, compared with $41,500 nationally. 81 people (7.7%) earned over $100,000 compared to 12.1% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was 558 (53.1%) full-time, 144 (13.7%) part-time, and 21 (2.0%) unemployed.
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