Once is never enough: Revisit Rotorua's hot spots

Discover six exhilarating natural experiences in Rotorua. Photo / Waimangu Volcanic Valley

A living gallery of spurting geysers, gurgling mud pools and fizzing lakes, Rotorua's geothermal wonders are familiar to most Kiwis.

Steeped in mystique and intrigue, with its sulphuric odour and surreal clouds of steam and mist, Rotorua - no matter how many times you visit - will bewitch. In and around the hot heart of New Zealand, these six captivating experiences leave a different impression every time.

Waimangu Volcanic Valley

Achingly enchanting, Waimangu Valley is the world's youngest geothermal landscape, re-sculpted by the 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera that buried nearby villages beneath a sea of lava and ash.

Unaltered since by man, this diverse ecosystem includes Emerald Pool; edged in a carpet of pink azolla, or mosquito fern. Frying Pan Lake (a newborn in 1917) forms the world's largest hot-water crypto geyser, garlanded in white pumice and algae.

Sublime temperate forest valley walks come flecked with starlings and swallows, where rangiora trees and 20m-high black tree ferns and koru ferns make for an otherworldly terrain. But it's the strikingly pretty Inferno Crater that steals all hearts and eyes. The belly of its spring glows in an unrealistic turquoise thanks to the suspended silica.

You can also cruise across Lake Rotomahana from Waimangu Volcanic Valley, to what was the country's first tourist attraction. The submerged resting place of the original Pink and White Terraces are said to be 60m below the waterline.
waimangu.co.nz
 

Waikite Valley Thermal Pools

Home to the country's largest single source of boiling water is Waikite Valley Thermal Pools. Here, you can sink yourself into healing calcite-rich mineral pools of varying temperatures. Then you can visit their mighty source.

Steaming Te Manaroa Spring. Photo / Marie Barbieri

Take the leisurely walk from the pools alongside the storybook-like Otamakokore Stream. Notice the hardy Christella ferns and ancient geothermal club moss that border it. On reaching Te Manaroa Spring, watch the water gush from the geothermal guts of Earth's cauldron, billowing up pillows of steam. hotpools.co.nz

Tiered Otamakocore Stream heading for Waikiti Valley Thermal Pools. Photo / Marie Barbieri

Te Puia

You'd be hard pushed to call Te Puia a one-trick pony. The 60ha landscape, shrouded in natural bush and pot-marked with dramatic geysers and mud pools, is just the beginning. Prep your legs (and your retinas) for a full day of remarkable sights along the Te Whakarewarewa geyser terrace, as well as traditional Māori carving and weaving, Māori-made taonga at the Āhua Gallery and of course, the biggest, naturally active geyser in the Southern Hemisphere: Pōhutu Geyser.

You are in fact traversing one of only two global geyser fields that exist in their natural state, but that's not all, there's also a model pre-European Māori village to explore, a Kiwi sanctuary and the Pātaka Kai restaurant where the hāngī buffet is a Saturday speciality.

Should you be after something extra special, experience Pōhutu Geyser's billowing plumes of steam by night. The all-new Geyser by Night tour occurs every Wednesday to Sunday, from 9-11pm. Follow your guide for 3km through Te Puia's geothermal valley, tapping into their extensive knowledge and historic lore. Roughly 90-minutes later, the geyser will be awaiting your arrival: puffing great gasps of silvery smoke into a starlit sky.
www.tepuia.com

Te Puia is a full-day experience encompassing various geothermal wonders and culturally significant sites. Photo / Te Puia

Whakarewarewa Forest

Not a geothermal hot spot, but definitely hot in terms of popularity. Immerse yourself into a world of 120-year-old Californian redwoods, Douglas firs and native rimu. Whakarewarewa Forest offers the thrilling 700m-long Redwoods Treewalk experience.

The charming climb across 28 eco-suspended jungle bridges and boardwalks takes in a canopy of redwoods, Japanese cedars and Tasmanian blackwoods, beneath which, is a forest floor of black and silver ferns. A 75m-tall redwood features a 20m-high lookout platform with a glass-floor viewing panel.

The new Redwoods Altitude Tour guides you along a 25m-high aerial walk to include zip-line rides. And after dark, night owls can return to enjoy the Nightlights Treewalk to view ornate wooden lanterns created by sustainable design guru David Trubridge.
treewalk.co.nz

The Redwoods Treewalk at Whakarewarewa Forest. Photo / Marie Barbieri

Te Wairoa (The Buried Village)

Mount Tarawera's colossal 1886 eruption caused Lake Rotomahana to explode, flooding and swallowing the region. Once one of six buried villages, Te Wairoa today welcomes visitors to view the remnant village and the 1986-excavated Rotomahana Hotel that stood on this 1km archaeological trail.

Impressively, many artefacts have been salvaged and rest protected in the multimedia museum. Also here are excavated whare, in one of which, Tūhoto Ariki was buried beneath mud and ash before the 100-year-old tribal tohunga was rescued — after four long days.

Spirit bottles excavated from Hotel Rotomahana's bar. Photo / Marie Barbieri

Take time to join the private streamside walk down to Te Wairoa falls. The elegant but energetic 30m-high horsetail cascade is a painting.
buriedvillage.co.nz

An excavated whare at the Buried Village. Photo / Marie Barbieri

Whakarewarewa (The Living Māori Village)

The thermal village of Whakarewarewa invites visitors on guided cultural walks. See how the Tūhourangi–Ngāti Wāhiao people utilise geothermal crater pools and steaming fumaroles as their resources for cooking, heating and washing. On this intimate tour, you can also join the locals to dine on a traditional hāngī dish, slow-cooked in the subterranean springs.

The living Maori village of Whakarewarewa. Photo / Marie Barbieri

The new self-guided Whaka Geothermal Trails will weave you through mānuka and kānuka bushland to view their private mud pools and springs, and fine views of Rotorua's 30m-high Pōhutu Geyser in the distance. whakarewarewa.com

It would be near-impossible to ever tire of Rotorua's unique landscape; showcasing its non-stop spurting spouts and hissing hilltops. When Mother Nature wishes to burn her infinite calories, she chooses Rotorua as her geothermal gym.

For more to see and do in Rotorua, visit rotoruanz.com

Check traffic light settings, vaccine requirements and Ministry of Health advice before travel. covid19.govt.nz