It takes its name from the wild dogs that made their home at the entrance and is still a spiritually significant place for Maori. Ruakuri was discovered by the local Maori 500 years ago. In addition to birds, you can also see the tuatara, the last remaining species of an ancient order of reptiles that walked the earth over 250 million years ago. This wildlife sanctuary is a great place to see New Zealand’s national bird, the kiwi (which is flightless and endemic to New Zealand), as well as other wildlife from the area including weka and kea (a weka is a brown flightless bird, about the size of a chicken and a kea is a large olive-green parrot).
Visit Otorohanga Kiwi House & Native Bird Park Prices start at 55 NZD for a boat tour and 195 NZD for extended tours with abseiling. A 45-minute rafting trip is the standard visit, but if you want to go abseiling (also known as rappelling) there’s a five-hour option too. You can walk, abseil, and float down an underground river to see them. They’re full of a species of glowworm that is native only to New Zealand (they’re actually fly larvae that emit a bioluminescent glow). Waitomo’s underground caves are the primary reason to come to this area.
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