Hi,
My friends and I are going to Auckland and we plan to allot one day to visit the Waitomo Caves and Hobbiton. We want to go there on our own but we couldn't find so much information on passenger buses from Auckland to Waitomo to Matamata. We were thinking of going to Rotorua as well but if there are limited trips, and if time won't allow it, we will forego this one. I hope to ask for leads or tips regarding public transportation from Auckland to Matamata to Waitomo to Auckland.
Thanks!
When you say "go there on our own" do you mean by rental car? Because in the next sentence you ask about buses. Intercity will take you to Waitomo but to zig-zag from one specific attraction to another by bus you need to take a tour.
www.greatsights.co.nz
Even then I am not sure that they still do both attractions in one day as I think it is too far - basically 3 hr each way + 1 hr for one cave + 1-2 hr to get from Waitomo to Matamata + 2 hr for Hobbiton = around 11 hours tour!
Thanks @keraru for your reply. We were thinking of taking the public transport by bus. We've discussed about renting a car but I only know left-hand drive and my companions do not drive so we are crossing that idea out. Most of the searches I did gave us packaged tours. I guess that's the best option we can go to these places.
Intercity do Auckland to Waitomo to Rotorua. They also do Rotorua to Matamata. Have a look at their timetables and see if you can work around them over a couple of days.
aside from day bus tours, using public fixed route buses
from auckland you can do a straight run to Waitomo
from waitomo to Matamata you are either going via Rotorua or Hamilton
nothing runs direct waitomo to matamata
so, auckland to waitomo
waitomo to hamilton and then on to matamata
or
waitomo to rotorua and then on to matamata
then back to auckland
if you can, make it part of a trip south
visit waitomo one leg and matamata the other leg
get yourself down to rotorua or taupo etc
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