Things to Do in Rotorua, New Zealand

1. Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland

A land that breathes, bubbles and smells of sulfur. Walk between pools in shades of emerald, blood and lemon while boiling magma bubbles under your feet.

Quick facts: Formed 160,000 years ago by a series of volcanic eruptions, this geothermal area releases more than 20 tons of sulfur vapor into the air every day. Its famous Chardonnay pool, emerald green in color, owes its appearance to arsenic and other minerals, not the grape variety as the name suggests.

Highlights: The Artist's Palette changes colors several times a year depending on bacteria and minerals, creating shades from lemon yellow to dark orange that look as if someone spilled paint on the ground. The Lady Knox Geyser erupts daily at exactly 10:15 AM, reaching heights of 10 to 20 meters, but only because staff activate it with soap, a traditional trick over a hundred years old.

2. Redwoods Treewalk

Walk through the treetops of an ancient rainforest and feel the power of nature from a bird's eye view. Light bridges lead you from tree to tree, while a green carpet of rainforest spreads beneath your feet.

Quick facts: Visitors walk 23 meters above the ground across 28 suspended platforms connected by light steel bridges. A tree over 1000 years old, known as 'Te Matua Ngahere', dominates the forest with its massive canopy.

Highlights: At night, the trails turn into a light spectacle with hundreds of hand-placed lanterns hanging among the branches like fireflies. After dark, the forest becomes a completely different world, and the scent of damp moss and earth almost hypnotizes you as you walk through the canopy.

3. Hell's Gate Geothermal Park & Mud Bath Spa

The only place in the world where you can bathe in natural geothermal mud. Dive into warm mud pools, then relax in sulfur water while clouds of steam surround you from the ground.

Quick facts: Steam vents and mud pools here reach temperatures of up to 40°C, and geothermal activity extends across as much as 10 hectares. Naturally heated mud rich in sulfur and minerals has been used for decades for skin care and muscle relaxation.

Highlights: Most visitors do not know that this place has the only natural mud pool in the entire South Pacific that is also completely legal for swimming. Dive into the warm, velvety mud that slowly bubbles as your skin absorbs the minerals, and then rinse off in a sulfur water spring. You literally feel as if you have been given new skin.

4. Polynesian Spa

Natural geothermal pools with mineral-rich water relax both body and soul. Surrounded by steam and the smell of sulfur, you will sink into warmth that completely isolates you from the world.

Quick facts: The entire complex is filled with natural geothermal water that reaches temperatures of up to 40 °C at the source. Each pool contains a different mineral composition, from alkaline to acidic waters, depending on the source from which it comes.

Highlights: Imagine lying in a warm pool while clouds of steam pass above your head, and before you stretches a view of the blue lake and green hills. At night, steam rises from the water, creating a mystical atmosphere under the spotlights, while the scents of sulfur and eucalyptus mix around you.

5. Skyline Rotorua

The best view of Rotorua and its three lakes from a single gondola. Delicious food, adrenaline luge ride and breathtaking sunsets.

Quick facts: By gondola you ascend 487 meters above Rotorua, and from the top there is a view of three lakes and a volcanic landscape that steams at every step. This is also home to the steepest gondola system in the southern hemisphere, making the ride itself an adventure.

Highlights: At night, the entire complex turns into a sea of a thousand lights illuminating the slope of Mount Ngongotaha, while down in the distance geothermal steam clouds from the Whakarewarewa Valley can be seen. That is why many visitors say that the sunset gondola ride with a glass of local wine is what they remember for a lifetime.

6. Whakarewarewa - The Living Māori Village

The Living Māori Village

The only place in the world where people live in the middle of an active geothermal field. You will walk through clouds of steam, taste food cooked on the springs and meet real descendants of warriors.

Quick facts: This living Māori village is located on an active geothermal field with springs reaching up to 120°C. The 20 or so members of the Tūhourangi-Ngāti Wāhiao tribe here cook, wash, and heat their homes daily using natural steam and hot springs.

Highlights: The villagers cook food in hanging baskets above the hot geothermal spring called Pohutu, and the steam temperature reaches 100°C. The first time you see someone lowering meat and vegetables into a natural steam hole carved into the ground, you realize the whole place is actually one giant, living kitchen stove.

7. Kuirau Park

The only park in the world where you can watch boiling mud pools for free in the middle of the city. You will walk on paths that wind between hot springs, steam and exotic plants. (176 characters)

Quick facts: More than 60 hot springs and muddy puddles are scattered throughout this public park, and the water temperature in some reaches 100°C. The park is completely free for visitors and open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Highlights: You can touch the heated ground with your own hands, which is boiling just below the surface at temperatures up to 120°C, while jets of steam burst out between your feet. There is no fence, no barrier, just you and raw volcanic energy literally beneath your feet.

8. Lake Rotorua

Naturally heated water and a mystical atmosphere you will not find anywhere else. Walk along the shore as geothermal steam clouds rise from the water.

Quick facts: With an area of 80 square kilometers, it is the largest lake on the North Island. The water is mildly sulfurous and has a characteristic milky blue color due to dissolved minerals and geothermal springs at the bottom.

Highlights: Imagine bathing in water that naturally steams at 40°C in the shallows because geothermal springs mix with the cooler lake water. The local Māori tribe Te Arawa believes the lake is a sacred place where ancestral spirits travel between worlds, and each year they hold a ceremony on the shore that tourists rarely see.

9. Rotorua Museum

A fairytale building with thermal baths that healed the whole world. Walk through the gardens and find out why this place was a mecca for the rich and artists.

Quick facts: A former spa complex from 1908 hides stories of patients who came to treat rheumatism in thermal baths. The building suffered serious damage in the 2023 earthquake and cannot currently be visited inside.

Highlights: One of the largest underground thermal springs in the southern hemisphere flows beneath the building, which once heated a 30 meter long pool. Visitors used to bathe in sulfur rich water while observing geothermal bubbles rising from the earth through a floor window.