Nikau Cave & Cafe

We had an incredible day here! The cave tour was a trip highlight as was the lunch/coffee and the art gallery at the Cafe. There's also a pretty hike that leads to a waterfall nearby and great scenery on the drive in to the cave. Highly recommend visiting!

Had a great experience at the caves!

Glow worms and stalagmites were fab - tour was in a small group and felt personal, you have the caves to yourselves and the guide

Requires walking through shin deep water and a short crawling section (doable for anyone physically fit) so best to wear shorts and old trainers/sandles you don’t mind getting completely wet

We had the best caving experience there! The owner phill is the most funny knowledgeable guide. We spent hour and half inside the cave, got all wet and even need to crawling through some path. My 10y son said the best experience ever! And the pizza and beer afterwards! My grumpy 13y teen daughter had smile on her face (tats definitely 5stars!) WOW! The view from the cafe!

Lovely cafe with beautiful nature view! Delicious food and coffee, made from their own roasted coffee beans!
The host was super friendly and very accommodating. Can’t wait to visit again in the summer!

Amazing family owned and run café and caves. Philip, the owner, is a great guide, and the cave tour will give you memories for life. The pizzas in the cafe are yummy.

We've had a fabulous weekend at Nikau Caves. Amazing hosts, delicious food, refreshing drinks, magnificent caves, majestic waterfall, glorious birdsong, beautiful and tranquil. Refreshed and restored

Just stunning service and full on welcome - you’d never expect this from the middle of nowhere. I’d just visited Amon Sul (Weathertop from LoTR) and passed though some spectacular North Island scenery to find the freshest coffee, great cake and smiles. Will be returning to view the caves on my next visit. Please stop say hello and support the little men!

Lovely Cafe situated next to a river. Hugely popular for such a remote location. The food was awesome and at a great price. There is also beer, cooffee, cabinet food along with other freshly baked goods. I would highly recommend the pizza!

Beautiful scenery in the cafe, lovely food and drinks and had a nice chat with the owner. A place like heaven, would definitely come again to see the cave, which must be spectacular!

Cave tour was fantastic, definitely worth the money:) Guide was really friendly and cafe venue had a beautiful outdoor grassy area

Came for a caving tour and had the best experience! The tour involves a bit of a hike and then walking through a creek in the cave, including some parts that are quite narrow and a section that requires crawling on your belly. The cave was beautiful, our tour guide Ethel was lovely, and the glow worms are stunning! Be sure to grab a coffee or food from the cafe and check out the nearby waterfall hike while you’re here.

A hidden and majestic gem! The experience of getting so close to the glow worms, the cave walking, stalactites and stalagmites was truly magical. We loved that it wasn’t commercialised. Thank you! Erica was fantastic, the food was great. We loved how genuine Anne (the owner) is with trusting us to pay an EFT.

Lovely setting. So relaxing. Amazing friendly staff! Great food! You'll see us again for sure

A great little cafe & adventure base for cave tours of the beaten track in a stunningly beautiful location. The staff are awesomely friendly & inviting with plenty of Kiwi cheek & humour. Their food & treats that are all made on site are awesome. We rode out on our motorbikes as there are some wonderful roads with beautiful vistas on the way to the café, which add to the addige, "it's not (just) the destination, it's also about the journey. "

If you're remotely close, GO! If you ride motorbikes & want some nice cornering roads & great scenery along the way, GO!

This place was absolutely awesome. This is not your average tour. The cave has some stairs that lead in and out of the caves, but other than that, the caves are untouched. There are no paths, no hands rails, nothing. Just how it's been for hundreds of years. Other then the paddock that lead to the caves. It was really surreal entering and exiting from a paddock, to this absolutely unreal world of the caves. There was a short section where we had to crawl through a quite shall shallow river for a minute or two, so make sure to bring not only cloths that you can get a bit muddy, but also a change of cloths. They did have a room of shoes to borrow, which was really good.

This tour will get you up so close to the glow worms your could just about touch them. We found it fascinating watching their little bodies crawl from string to string, then turn around, being so close that we can see the patterns on their bodies, and the tiny green glowing dot at one end of their bodies.

When we weren't marveling at the glow worms, we where in awe of the hundreds of different varieties of stalagmites, stalactites, and other rock formations. About half of the rocks we where crawling over had fossilized shells embedded in them. It was so overwhelming beautiful, that I had a tear in my eye, and my partner cried. Our tour guide was not only knowledgeable, buy great to chat to and friendly. I really don't know how to put into words how much we enjoyed it all and can't possibly recommend this experience enough. It was probably the most magical thing I've ever experienced in my life. It didn't feel real to us. The tour took around 1.5hours from memory but best to give it 2 hours.

In addition, they roast their own coffee and the coffee was fantastic. They also had various home made meals and desserts there which where absolutely delicious.

Over all: amazing. Would recommend.

We did the bush walk to the waterfall. Lovely peaceful walk of just over an hour.
The cafe after was delicious and reasonably priced and very friendly staff.

Great wee cafe "off the beaten track". Awesome drive to get here, very scenic. Must return and do the cave your. So we did the caves today - AWESOME! So many stalactites -mites & glow worms! Not for you if claustrophobic (squeeze thru small cracks and crawl thru water for 20m).

Great cafe, friendly staff. Need to book for the caves but were happy to take us without booking as well.

This is a great place for a destination drive or motorcycle adventure. Its a bit out of the way but well worth the visit.
Home made food and great coffee but its not fast food so be prepared to relax in the wonderful surroundings and enjoy a beer while your food is being prepared.

The food was really, really slow coming. Waited an hour and a quarter for four sandwiches! We blame the old girl in the kitchen who was painfully slow for the long wait.