I need help with glow worm tour in Auckland

[islandermg]

hello,

We are on a Princess cruise in NZ in Feb. and have set up a 3-day pre-cruise hotel stay with Princess in Auckland. It includes a tour to the glow worm caverns the day before ship sails. My question. I have booked eight of us for dinner at the Orbit Sky restaurant that same afternoon at 5:30. Has anyone taken this tour through Princess and if so, when did you return to the hotel. I might have to make a later dinner reservation.

thanks,

islandermg

[talyanka]

We just returned form Auckland and we took similar tour. It wasn't done through Princess I booked it thruogh New Zealand Tours. We left Auckland at 7:00 am and suggested returned time was 7:00 pm. We actually came earlier but it was just our luck and not a normal schedule as there were only 2 of us on this tour.

When I was checking different tour operators they all require about 11-12 hours for this tour. Just a drive time between Auckland and Waitomo approximately 3 hours one way.

To be on the safe side you better reschedule your restaurant for the later time.

[Stacey779]

wow, 3 hours each way? i didn't realize it was that far away. that's a lot of time to spend in the car. did you think it was worth the drive? we're going to be spending 3 days in auckland pre-cruise and we're trying to figure out what we're doing.

[Johanna7]

If you want my honest opinion of the Glow Worm Caves, they are highly overrated. We did it 3 years ago with a rental car there and back and it sure wasn't the highlight of the trip.

 

The Hop on Hop off bus sounds interesting though. Especially the rates for multiple days.

[wblevin]

Just returned today. We did the glow worm caves and found it fascinating. By the time we got off the ship and dealt with the luggage, it was about 8:30 am. We hit a bit of traffic, and stopped for coffee and still made it up there by a little after 11. We did the 11:30 glow worm tour and then headed down to the Angora Rabbit shearing. We had a wonderful day and made it back to Auckland by about 3:30 - plenty of time to do one of the volcanos and some of the beautiful parks before taking us to the airport at bout 4:45. Soooo glad we did the tour! Just loved New Zealand!