Rotorua
A Geothermal Town Built On An Active Volcanic Field, Where Steam Rises From Street Drains And Park Lawns, Geysers And Silica Terraces Run At Te Puia And Wai O Tapu, And Te Arawa Cultural Performances And Hangi Feasts At Villages Like Tamaki Make This The Centre Of Maori Cultural Tourism In The Country · Rotorua, Bay of Plenty
Rotorua sits on the shore of Lake Rotorua in the Bay of Plenty, built directly on top of one of the most active geothermal fields in the country, and the town genuinely smells faintly of sulphur - steam drifts up from street drains and park lawns with no entrance fee at all. Kuirau Park, free and open all the time, has bubbling mud pools and a steaming lake in the town centre. The paid parks go further: Te Puia combines the Pohutu Geyser, erupting several times an hour, with a living geothermal valley and the national Maori arts and crafts institute, where carvers and weavers train in public view. Wai-O-Tapu, a half-hour drive south, has the most colourful thermal features in the country, the Champagne Pool among them. Rotorua is also the centre of Te Arawa Maori culture and the country's main hub for Maori cultural tourism - villages such as Tamaki and Mitai run evening hangi feasts and concerts, and Whakarewarewa is a geothermal village where a Maori community still lives among its own steam vents. Add Redwoods mountain biking and Lake Tarawera, and a visit fills two to three days.
On the shore of Lake Rotorua, about 2.5 hours south-east of Auckland, Rotorua, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
Kuirau Park's free mud pools and steaming lake in the town centre have no gate and are open at all hours. Te Puia and Wai-O-Tapu run fixed daytime hours with last entry well before closing, and Wai-O-Tapu's Lady Knox Geyser is set off by park staff at a single scheduled time each morning, not on demand. Whakarewarewa Living Maori Village keeps shorter daytime hours than the geothermal parks. Evening hangi and concert shows at Tamaki and Mitai run to a fixed start time and some reduce to fewer nights a week in the winter low season - confirm which nights are running before driving out.