One of the many reasons I love Dunedin is that the city is surrounded by so much natural beauty, not to mention an abundance of wildlife. Nicols Creek encompasses both. By day you’ll find a picturesque waterfall which cascades into an intimate mossy gorge, and by night you’ll find a glow worm wonderland.
Sometimes, glow worm experiences in the bush can be quite subtle, but that’s not the case at Nicols Creek. Here you are positively surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of twinkling blue lights and the effect is nothing short of magical.
To top it all off, both the waterfall and glow worm spots are very easy to get to. Here’s everything you need to know about visiting Nicols Creek, one of our favourite things to do in Dunedin.
The Nicols Creek walk by day
The stats
Distance: 1.9km return to the waterfall
Elevation: 120m
Difficulty: Easy
Starting the trail: into the forest
There are two tracks at Nicols Creek: one for walkers and one for mountain bikers. Just make sure you head to the gate and onto the gravel path (the bikers track is a narrow dirt path on the opposite side of the creek).
The walk is on a wide gravel trail, it can get a little muddy, but nothing major. The track heads immediately uphill and is relatively steep at first.
The forest is extremely beautiful, the creek is crystal clear and the moss, ferns and vines give it a wild feel. I hadn’t expected such a dense patch of forest to be so close to the city.
To the falls
After 230m you’ll come to a junction, it’s not signposted but just keep on going straight. The track starts to flatten and you’ll come to a second junction.
Continuing straight will take you to the glow worm spot and heading left will take you up to the waterfall. It’s only 100m to reach the glow worm spot and completely flat, so it’s worth going to see where you will be returning to at night. The official path ends when the handrail finishes.
When you’re ready to head to the falls you’ll head back to the junction and climb up the stairs, following the narrow dirt path through the forest.
It’s a mixture of uphill and flat track and it continues to be very pretty. Again it can be a little muddy after rain, but nothing that will be a problem with decent shoes.
Nicols Falls
After 600m you’ll reach tall cliff walls which are covered in dense ferns and you’ll see Nicols Falls directly ahead of you.
The bottom of the falls is slightly obscured by rocks and fallen trees, but you can easily cross the creek and scramble right up to the base of the falls.
It only takes a few minutes and it’s easy enough if you don’t mind a little rock hopping.
The waterfall is very pretty and if you go right to the base you’ll feel enclosed by the gorge walls making for a more intimate setting.
If you don’t want to rock hop you still get a great view, and there are plenty of rocks to sit and relax on.
We noticed that a little further along the creek, in the opposite direction to the falls, there were a few shallow water holes. We visited in winter but I might have been tempted to take a shallow dip in warmer weather.
Nicols Creek by night!
We loved Nicols Creek by day but by night it is even more special. It’s easily the most glow worms we’ve see in a bush setting and we’ve been to a lot of glow worm spots! It’s also incredibly easy to access.
Whilst there is a little bit of a hill, the path is well maintained and it doesn’t take long at all (around five minutes) to reach the best of the glow worms.
The glow worms begin in force from the first signpost (with the details on glow worms) and get denser the further you go.
They are all the way up the walls on both sides of the creek and continue right through to the gorge beyond the handrail and official end of the track.
It’s a mesmerising sight and the section by the handrail allows you to get incredibly close to the glow worms.
The glow worms are scattered right the way up the tall cliff walls and as they are on both sides it’s almost like an amphitheatre of glow worms! It was so beautiful we stayed for a good hour just taking it all in and we couldn’t believe we had the whole thing to ourselves!
It’s very muddy just in front of the dripping wall, so just watch that section in the dark as you could easily go ankle deep, all the rest is absolutely fine.
We were originally planning to head to Nicols Falls as well to see if there were glow worms there too, but we ended up staying so long at this spot that we ran out of time.
It could be worth checking out if you have more time!
If you love the glow worm experience at Nichols Creek and are looking for other great spots to see them, we have you covered in this post.
Tips for getting the most out of the glow worm experience
Make sure you turn off all light and let your eyes adjust for at least five minutes to get the full effects. You’ll see hundreds immediately, but it’s nothing to what you’ll see the longer you stand in the darkness!
Make sure you leave a minimum of one hour and preferably more after sunset. If you go in the twilight you will see much smaller numbers. You want it to be as dark as possible. Even bright moonlight has an effect. It won’t stop you seeing them at all but you won’t see nearly as many.
If you’re visiting on a weekend I would aim to go later in the evening, there’s nothing like getting this amazing glow worm colony all to yourself and as it’s so close to the city centre weekends are more likely to see other visitors.
Taking care of the glow worms
Glow worms are very sensitive to light and will stop glowing if you shine white light directly on them. This can lead to an inability to feed and can even kill them. Shining a light on them will also totally ruin your own experience as the true spectacle can only be seen in total darkness. You can use a torch to get to a good spot and then turn it off again.
Please don’t use flash photography. The best way to photograph glow worms is with tripod and total darkness.
Getting to Nicols Creek
When trying to get to Nicols Gorge, make sure you type in “Nicols Creek MTB Track”. Otherwise Google Maps will take you to completely the wrong place!
Nicols Creek is just under 7km from Dunedin city centre and takes around 15 minutes to drive to. There is no car park as such but there is room for several cars to park fully off the road on the lay-by just beyond the small bridge and the start of the track.
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