On Sunday afternoon we visited the famous town of Rotorua, recognised for it’s geothermal features and significant Mauri history. Having arrived late in the day though, we didn’t get a chance to see everything we wanted... So after staying the night in a hostel, we continued the following morning where we left off, and discovered that Rotorua is a town with more to offer than we first thought.
Ohinemutu is a suburb in the north of Rotorua. It’s a living Mauri village that has been home to the Ngati Whakaue tribe for thousands of years. We’ve never been to a tribal village before and so weren’t sure what to look forward to, but we had heard that it’s one of the most interesting parts of town.
So what makes it special? Well, obviously there is a sense of a different culture - the Mauri are very proud of who they are and it reflects in their buildings and the way they decorate their village. Although still part of modern New Zealand it’s clear that this is different from any other town, but by that we don’t just mean the way it looks... no, take a trip to this incredible setting and you’ll see that there is a much bigger difference, something entirely distinctive.
Have you ever been at the beach and thought twice about jumping in the sea because it’s too cold? Well you’d think twice about taking a dip in the water when standing on the shoreline of Ohineutu as well, not because it’s cold but because the water is boiling! Yes, here in Rotorua it’s wise to check the temperature of any water before making a splash, as the underground magma heats up much of the towns natural sources of water to the point where they boil. This isn’t just limited to small ponds though, so watch your step on the beach because if you’re not careful you may just step into super heated water.
We took a stroll along the sand and sure enough, the waves are steaming hot. It’s not the safest thing we’ve ever done but wow how it was interesting. There are both hot and cold parts of the water so we had a bit of fun finding where not to step. And Liam discovered that if you dig just a few millimetres down in the sand you’ll reach bubbling saltwater. Naturally, we probably don’t need to stress that you should be very cautious in this area but we loved how you are able to walk around freely without any restrictions. It makes this place quite special, if not unique. If there is one top-tip we can give you, it would be not to wear flip flops when walking around here... one of us did, and we won’t embarrass them by saying their name, but he burnt his already-injured toe... we’ll say no more.
After the beach we had a look at the Government Gardens. We didn’t stay for a long time and didn’t see everything because soon after arriving we concluded that it wasn’t really the type of place we enjoy. Man-made gardens in straight lines is something that would probably impress us in European cities but not in New Zealand. There are much nicer places out in the wild and so spending a long time in a city park simply didn’t feel right. The biggest attraction in the park is the Rotorua museum which is currently closed after being damaged by the earthquake three years ago in 2016. Also to find are a spa, mini golf, and a petanque (bowls) pitch. As we said already, this wasn’t for us so we moved on.
Going East around lake Rotorua you can pay to visit another Mauri village, Te Puia, and the Pohutu Geyser. The entry starts at around $50 pp but includes a guided tour. For a more complete experience including a full day pass, with dinner and a show you can expect to pay over $150 pp, but we weren’t ready to pay anything just yet so we left this for another time.
As for the Pohutu Geyser, it can be seen also from a lookout above the valley, so we still managed to have a sneaky look from up there. Obviously it’s not the same but the lookout was really good anyway. The walk there will take you between lots of bike tracks in the forest, it’s a nice walk and from the lookout you can see out to the lake. We spent a few minutes trying to spot the geysers around town from above before heading back down. For this one make sure you don’t pay for parking - there are two car parks, and you’ll want to drive straight to ‘MTB Carpark Waipa’ where the track to the Lower Whaka Lookout Starts. We also checked out the upper lookout and in our opinion, the lower lookout is better.
If you have enough time you can make this a whole-day trip and walk all the way to what was our next destination: the Redwood Forest. From the lookout, the track continues to the Redwood forest, and then back to the car park by the lookout. This track should take around 2 hrs in total and is 7.5 km each way. Although we think we would have enjoyed this walk, we were pushed for time and drove to the Redwood Forest instead.
There are five walking tracks starting at the visitor centre which are free, and also a ‘tree walk’ ($29) Redwoods Treewalk claims to be a “Rotorua must do - Best bridges in New Zealand” but although we didn’t do the walk we saw it from a few metres below, and following almost the same path as the people above us, we couldn’t understand what made it so good. It is wheelchair accessible though, and we were tempted to try the night walk and see the hanging lanterns in the forest... but we changed our mind after seeing the walk close up.
Instead we tried the Redwood Memorial Grove Walk, a 2 km loop that takes approximately half an hour to walk. You can easily see why the redwoods are named so, and seeing a whole forest of them is very nice. These Californian trees are fairly thin but very tall, and can reach 67 metres high. The ones in this forest were planted as part of a productive plantation. Ten minutes of walking down this track took us to the Redwood Memorial Grove, which is dedicated to service members who died in both world wars. Shortly after the memorial, the walk turns back to the visitor centre. If you feel like extending the walk as we did then you can continue for another half an hour down the Waitawa Walk, which also finishes by the visitor centre.
Our last stop before making it to our next campsite was Hannah’s Bay. It’s a little village just a short drive from Redwood Forest and is a situated on the shore of Rotorua Lake. There’s nothing particularly special about this place but having dinner whilst looking out over the evening water is much nicer than eating behind a steering wheel. We stopped and relaxed here for a while before leaving for Brocks Place campsite. It took us half an hour to get there but it looked like we arrived just in time to get a space. This was one of the few paid campsites we have stayed at but it was worth every cent.
Our journey from Rotorua to Brocks Place was pretty exhausting but we got to see some incredible places on the way and can’t stress how especially amazing the Mauri village was. All in all, it was a great day and was the start of an even better week, because the next day things got even more spectacular...
Up next: A long-expected day out - Hobbiton
More photos in our GALLERY