Around Rotorua
Many of the best attractions in the area lie outside the city itself but shuttles and tours mean that just about every combination of sights can be packed into a day, as well as all manner of adventure activities – from rafting to skydiving.
Travellers can quickly dispatch minor sights along the eastern shore of Lake Rotorua, leaving time for the seldom-crowded Hell’s Gate thermal area and the opportunity to watch terrified rafters plunging over Tutea’s Falls. Rewards are more plentiful to the east and south especially around the shattered 5km-long massif of Mount Tarawera. During one cataclysmic night of eruptions in 1886 this chain split in two, destroying the region’s first tourist attraction (the beautiful Pink and White Terraces), entombing the nearest settlement, Te Wairoa, now known as the Buried Village, and creating the Waimangu Volcanic Valley. It now ranks as one of the finest collections of geothermal features in the region alongside kaleidoscopic Wai-O-Tapu, with its daily triggered Lady Knox Geyser, boiling mud, and brilliantly coloured pools. Other magnificent geothermal areas around Rotorua include Kerosene Creek, which has the best free hot pools hereabouts, and Orakei Korako, which offers a peaceful geothermal experience. Meanwhile, the Whirinaki Forest Park presents great hiking and biking opportunities on the road to Lake Waikaremoana.
The Mount Tarawera eruption
Volcanic activity provides the main theme for attractions southeast of Rotorua, most having some association with Lake Tarawera and the jagged line of volcanic peaks and craters along the southeastern shore, collectively known as Mount Tarawera, which erupted in 1886.
Prior to that eruption Tarawera was New Zealand’s premier tourist destination, with thousands of visitors every year crossing lakes Tarawera and Rotomahana in whaleboats and waka, frequently guided by the renowned Maori guide Sophia, to the Pink and White Terraces, two separate fans of silica that cascaded down the hillside to the edge of Lake Rotomahana. Boiling cauldrons bubbled at the top of each formation, spilling mineral-rich water down into a series of staggered cup-shaped pools, the outflow of one filling the one below. Most visitors favoured the Pink Terraces, which were prettier and better suited to sitting and soaking. All this came to an abrupt end on the night of June 10, 1886, when the long-dormant Mount Tarawera erupted, creating 22 craters along a 17km rift, and covering over 15,000 square kilometres in mud and scoria. The Pink and White Terraces were shattered by the buckling earth, covered by ash and lava, then submerged deep under the waters of Lake Rotomahana.
The cataclysm had been foreshadowed eleven days earlier, when two separate canoe-loads of Pakeha tourists and their Maori guides saw an ancient waka glide out of the mist, with a dozen warriors paddling furiously, then vanish just as suddenly; the ancient tohunga (priest) Tuhoto Ariki interpreted this as a sign of imminent disaster. The fallout from the eruption buried five villages, including the staging post for the Pink and White Terrace trips, Te Wairoa, where the tohunga, lived. In a classic case of blaming the messenger, the inhabitants refused to rescue the tohunga and it wasn’t until four days later that they allowed a group of Pakeha to dig him out. Miraculously he lived, for a week.
In 2011, scientists discovered that rather than being completely destroyed, parts of the Pink Terraces appear to have survived the 1886 eruption (the White Terraces are thought to have been more likely to have been affected). The gas and hot water vents discovered on the lake floor indicate rare active underwater geothermal systems, which scientists are continuing to research.
Wai-O-Tapu
Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, 10km south of Waimangu, is the area’s most colourful and varied geothermal site. At 10.15am daily, the 10m Lady Knox Geyser is ignominiously induced to perform by a staff member who pours a soapy surfactant into the vent. If you miss the geyser your ticket allows you to come back next morning.
Everyone then drives 1km to the main site where an hour-long walking loop wends its way through a series of small lakes which have taken on the tints of the minerals dissolved in them – yellow from sulphur, purple from manganese, green from arsenic and so on. The gurgling and growling black mud of the Devil’s Ink-Pots and a series of hissing and rumbling craters pale beside the ever-changing rainbow colours of the Artist’s Palette pools and the gorgeous, effervescent Champagne Pool, a circular bottle-green cauldron wreathed in swirling steam and fringed by a burnt-orange shelf. The waters of the Champagne Pool froth over The Terraces, a rippled accretion of lime silicate that glistens in the sunlight.
As you drive back to the main road, follow a short detour to a huge and active boiling mud pool which plops away merrily, forming lovely concentric patterns.
Around Taupo
On the town’s outskirts is a concentration of natural wonders, all within a few minutes of one another. Here you’ll find boiling mud, hissing steam harnessed by the Wairakei power station, and the clear-blue Waikato River, which cuts a deep swirling course north over rapids and through deep-sided gorges.
The majority of sights and activities are within 10km of Taupo, flanking the Waikato River as it wends its way north, and are accessible through Taupo’s tour companies. Huka Falls Road loops off SH1 a couple of kilometres north of Taupo and passes the Reids Farm free campsite and Huka Lodge (one of New Zealand’s most exclusive luxury retreats) en route to the first port of call, the magnificent Huka Falls (hukanui, or “great body of spray”). Here the Waikato, one of New Zealand’s most voluminous rivers, funnels into a narrow chasm before plunging over a 9m shelf into a seething maelstrom of eddies and whirlpools; the sheer power of some three hundred tonnes of water per second makes it a far more awesome sight than the short drop would suggest. A footbridge spans the channel, providing a perfect vantage point for watching the occasional mad kayaker making the descent, usually on weekend evenings. The car park is only open until 6pm but you can park outside and walk in at any time.
The Napier–Taupo Road
Travelling beyond the immediate vicinity of Taupo, SH1 hugs the lake as it heads southwest to Turangi, while SH5 veers southeast along the Napier–Taupo Road, a twisting ninety-minute run through some of the North Island’s remotest country. Much of the early part of the journey crosses the Kaingaroa Plains, impoverished land cloaked in pumice and ash from the Taupo volcanic eruption and of little use save for the pine plantations which stretch 100km to the north. The history of this route is traced by the Napier–Taupo Heritage Trail; pick up a free booklet from either town’s i-SITE.
Rotorua
You smell Rotorua long before you see it. Hydrogen sulphide drifting up from natural vents in the region’s thin crust means that a whiff of rotten eggs lingers in the air, but after a few hours you barely notice it. The odour certainly doesn’t stop any one from visiting this small city on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua. Indeed, this is the North Island’s tourist destination par excellence – so much so that locals refer to the place (only half-jokingly) as Roto-Vegas.
A big part of the appeal is that Rotorua is one of the world’s most concentrated and accessible geothermal areas, where 15m geysers spout among kaleidoscopic mineral pools, steam wafts over cauldrons of boiling mud and terraces of encrusted silicates drip like stalactites. Everywhere you look there’s evidence of volcanism: birds on the lakeshore are relieved of the chore of nest-sitting by the warmth of the ground; in churchyards tombs are built topside as digging graves is likely to unearth a hot spring; and hotels are equipped with geothermally fed hot tubs, perfect after a hard day’s sightseeing. Throughout the region, sulphur and heat combine to form barren landscapes where only hardy plants brave the trickling hot streams, sputtering vents and seething fumaroles. There’s no shortage of colour, however, from iridescent mineral deposits lining the pools: bright oranges juxtaposed with emerald greens and rust reds. The underworld looms large in Rotorua’s lexicon: there’s no end of “The Devil’s” this and “Hell’s” that, prompting George Bernard Shaw to quip that the Hell’s Gate thermal area “reminds me too vividly of the fate theologians have promised me”.
But constant hydrothermal activity is only part of the area’s appeal. The naturally hot water lured Maori to settle here, using the hottest pools for cooking and bathing, and building their whare (houses) on warm ground to drive away the winter chill. Despite the inevitably diluting effects of tourism, there’s no better place to get an introduction to Maori values, traditions, dance and song than at a concert and hangi evening.
The lake’s northern and southern boundaries are marked by two ancient villages of the Arawa sub-tribe, Ngati Whakaue: lakeshore Ohinemutu and inland Whakarewarewa. The original Bath House is now part of Rotorua Museum, set in the grounds of the oh-so-English Government Gardens, which successfully and entertainingly puts these early enterprises into context. Half a day is well spent on foot visiting the museum’s fine collection of Maori artefacts and bathhouse relics, and strolling around the lakeshores to Ohinemutu, the city’s original Maori village with its neatly carved church. Afterwards, you can ease your bones with a soak in the hot pools set in a native bird sanctuary by catching a boat out to Mokoia Island.
At the southern end of town, Maori residents still go about their daily lives amid the steam and boiling pools at Whakarewarewa Thermal Village, while the adjacent Te Puia offers the region’s only natural geysers, plopping mud and a nationally renowned Maori carving school.
Where Rotorua’s northwestern suburbs peter out, Mount Ngongotaha rises up, providing the necessary slope for a number of gravity-driven activities at the Skyline Skyrides. In its shadow, Rainbow Springs Kiwi Wildlife Park, provides a window into the life cycle of trout, and an excellent Kiwi Encounter, while the nearby Agrodome fills the prescription for adrenaline junkies.
Some of the region’s finest geothermal areas lie outside the city – For more information, see Around Rotorua.
Brief history
The Rotorua region is the traditional home of the Arawa people. According to Maori history, one of the first parties to explore the interior was led by the tohunga (priest), Ngatoroirangi, who made it as far as the freezing summit of Mount Tongariro, where he feared he might die from cold. His prayers to the gods of Hawaiki were answered with fire that journeyed underground, surfacing at White Island in the Bay of Plenty, then at several more points in a line between there and the three central North Island volcanoes. Ngatoroirangi was saved, and he and his followers established themselves around Lake Rotoiti (“small lake”) and Lake Rotorua (“second lake”).
Battles and bloodshed
In revenge for an earlier raid, the Northland Ngapuhi chief, Hongi Hika, led a war party here in 1823, complete with muskets traded with Europeans in the Bay of Islands. The Arawa retreated to Mokoia Island, in the middle of Lake Rotorua; undaunted, Hongi Hika and his warriors carried their canoes overland between lakes (the track between Lake Rotoiti and Lake Rotoehu still bears the name Hongi’s Track) and defeated the traditionally armed Arawa. In the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s the Arawa supported the government. In return, colonial troops helped repulse Te Kooti (see box, p.383) and his people a decade later.
The birth of tourism
A few Europeans had already lived for some years in the Maori villages of Ohinemutu and Whakarewarewa, but it wasn’t until Te Kooti had been driven off that Rotorua came into existence. Tourists began to arrive in the district to view the Pink and White Terraces, and the Arawa, who up to this point had been relatively isolated from European influence, quickly grasped the possibilities of tourism, helping make Rotorua what it is today. Set up as a spa town on land leased from the Ngati Whakaue, by 1885 the fledgling city boasted the Government Sanatorium Complex, a spa designed to administer the rigorous treatments deemed beneficial to the “invalids” who came to take the waters.
Hangi and Maori concerts
Rotorua provides more opportunities than anywhere else to sample food steamed to perfection in the Maori earth oven or hangi and watch a Maori concert, typically an hour-long performance of traditional dance, song and chants. The bigger hotels all put on somewhat forced extravaganzas, so go for the “Maori experiences” (daily, by reservation). All have buses picking up at hotels and hostels ready for a start around 6pm, then run for three to four hours. They follow largely the same format, giving instruction on marae customs and protocol followed by a formal welcome, concert and hangi.
Rafting, kayaking and sledging around Rotorua
Rotorua has a considerable reputation for its nearby whitewater rivers, which you can tackle aboard rafts, kayaks (usually tandems) or, more in-your-face, by “sledging” – floating down rapids clinging to a buoyant plastic sledge (really only for good swimmers). There’s no shortage of operators willing to take you out (usually from September to May); the most popular rivers are listed below. Other options include renting kayaks or undertaking kayaking courses and guided trips on several of the larger lakes in the region, with the emphasis on scenic appreciation, soaking in hot pools and a little fishing.
Kaituna River Much of the hype is reserved for this Grade IV river, or at least the 2km section after it leaves Lake Rotoiti 20km north of Rotorua, which includes the spectacular 7m Tutea’s Falls (sledgers walk around the falls).
Wairoa River If you can get the timing right, this Grade IV+ river, 80km by road from Rotorua, on the outskirts of Tauranga, is the one to go for. It relies on dam-releases for raftable quantities of white water (Dec–March every Sun; Sept–Nov & April–May every second Sun). This is one of the finest short trips available in New Zealand, negotiating a hazardous but immensely satisfying stretch of water.
Rangitaiki River If your tastes lean more towards appreciation of the natural surroundings with a bit of a bumpy ride thrown in, opt for this Grade III river, which also shoots Jeff’s Joy, a Grade IV drop that’s the highlight of the trip.
The love story of Hinemoa and Tutanekai
The Maori love story of Hinemoa and Tutanekai has been told around the shores of Lake Rotorua for centuries. It tells of the illegitimate young chief Tutanekai of Mokoia Island and his high-born paramour, Hinemoa, whose family forbade her from marrying him. To prevent her from meeting him they beached their waka (canoe) but the strains of his lamenting flute wafted across the lake nightly and the smitten Hinemoa resolved to swim to him. One night, buoyed by gourds, she set off towards Mokoia but by the time she got there Tutanekai had retired to his whare (house) to sleep. Hinemoa arrived at the island but without clothes was unable to enter the village, so she immersed herself in a hot pool. Presently Tutanekai’s slave came to collect water and Hinemoa lured him over, smashed his gourd and sent him back to his master. An enraged Tutanekai came to investigate, only to fall into into Hinemoa’s embrace.