Waitomo 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. History The village 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, a large cave system near Waitomo Caves were nationalised by the Crown and managed as a (relatively genteel) tourism attraction from 1904 onwards. A 1915 guide said, "It is reached by railway to Hangatiki, thence 6 miles by coach along a good road". A visit to Waitomo Caves made number 14 amongst a list of 101 "Kiwi must-do's" in a New Zealand Automobile Association poll of over 20,000 motorists published 2007, and in 2004, around 400,000 visitors entered caves in the area. The Waitomo Caves Museum provides information about the karst landscape, caves and caving and the history of the area. Tourist caves Companies specialise in leading tourists through the caves of the area, from easily accessible areas with hundreds of tourists per hour in the peak season, to extreme sports, like crawls into cave systems, which are only seen by a few tourists each day. The caves are noted for their stalactite and stalagmite displays, and (in the caves with streams running through) for the presence of glowworms (the fungus gnat Arachnocampa luminosa). Walks The Waitomo Walkway runs through the valley of the Waitomo Stream (a tributary of the Waipā River) for from the village to the Ruakuri Scenic Reserve. At the reserve the Ruakuri Walk leads through short caves to the Ruakuri Natural Bridge. Te Araroa, a national long distance walkway, passes through Waitomo. The section from Mt Pirongia joins the Waitomo Walkway to enter the village. The section to Te Kuiti goes over Mangapu River suspension bridge and through Pehitawa kahikatea forest. Demographics Waitomo settlement is