We are currently in month 4 of our self-imposed (ok, and bank-account-imposed) overseas travel ban. If you’ve seen the rest of our blog, you will start to understand why. We’ve been married for 2 years, and have visited 6 countries (Australia x 2, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, England, France and South Africa). In 2017 we went on 3 separate overseas trips, and brought a house, and adopted a puppy fur baby (who ate a fishhook when he was 4 months old. apparently that costs $2,000 to remove, just FYI).
Needless to say, we NEED to stay home more. and by ‘home’ i mean mostly the North Island, but really the whole of New Zealand. 1, because who can actually stay at home in their city for a whole year? and 2, because we have seen so little of our own country. (also, 3, we *cough* I *cough* have a ton of countries at the top of “the list”: Canada, China, Israel, Japan, Vietnam, ALL of the Pacific Islands etc etc and I’m just a lowly earning Social Worker with very little entitled leave. Sooo. We need to save up all the dollars and all the leave because I refuse to get into debt for nice-to-haves/dos)
Anyway. We have committed to seeing more of New Zealand, in particular the North Island. We live centrally (kind of), Mikey hasn’t seen much of the place, its absolutely beautiful, and there are so many fun things to do and see and getting out and about helps me refuel my tank for my rather stressful and emotionally draining “9 to 5” job.
Most recently, we went to the beautifully unique (and only a little smelly) ROTORUA for the weekend. Its a 4 hour drive from Whanganui so we decided, hey we can leave Friday after work, get there in reasonable time and then get a whole day and a half up there before we have to leave to come home. This was a super great plan. (except that we arrived at 1am, thanks to a work crisis which ended up being a non-event).
About Rotorua:
Rotorua is in the Bay of Plenty, North Island, New Zealand. The name comes from the Maori Te Rotorua-nui-a-Kahumatamomoe which means “The second great lake of Kahumatamomoe” (an early Maori explorer). The area is a VERY popular tourist attraction, there’s nowhere else quite like it. There are two main reasons for Rotorua being a must-do-and-see tourist destination; the geography and the adventure activities.
Geography: Firstly, as a ‘Lake district’ there are 17 lakes in the area (umm, wow!). These lakes have mostly been formed by volcanic activity (Rotorua is part of the Taupo Volcanic Zone) which means there are also HEAPS of beautiful New Zealand mountains, waterfalls and other ‘clean-green-pure-NZ’ wonderful things to see. Secondly, the GEOTHERMIC activity, which is also a result of the areas volcanic activity. Geysers, bubbling mud pools and hot thermal springs. Yes people, you can soak in naturally warm water and bath in warm mud baths.
Adventure Activities: Rotorua is home to New Zealand’s adventure tourism. If you want an adrenaline thrill (big one or a small one) filled holiday. Rotorua is where you need to go. Queenstown is catching up, but Rotorua is my pick any day. (lets talk about Central Otago and Queenstown another time though, it is a great, albeit expensive, place). Skyline Gondola and Luge, Giant Swings, Zip-lining, Zorb-ing, Bungee Jumping, Sky Diving, Jet Boating, White Water Rafting. You name it. Rotorua has it.
What we did:
SULPHUR POINT, LAKE ROTORUA
Ok, so. There are a lot of places you can pay to smell sulphur in Rotorua and see geothermic activity. This trip, we just went for the freebies. Sulphur point was very pretty, had all the smells and some bubbling mud.
THE REDWOODS-WHAKAREWAREWA FOREST
If you’re a bit of a nature lover-and read fun facts on holiday like I am (but even more so, Mikey) then I would HIGHLY recommend spending the $25 dollars each it costs to do the Redwoods tree walk at Whakarewarewa forest. This is New Zealand’s longest living tree walk. I loved being up in the trees, with a birds eye view of the forest (well, more like possum eye view since you’re only part way up the trees). You can do it during the day, or at nighttime when it is lit up. There are Iconic New Zealand’s artist David Truebridge ‘bespoke creations’ (inspired by native NZ birds) which light the way.
It doesn’t look like much at the start, but it is much longer and higher than what it seems. There are 22 platforms, with joining swing bridges that go up to 12m tall (and then an even higher viewing platform). Each platform has interesting information about redwood trees, New Zealand forestry and other nature facts.
After the tree walk we went for a stroll through the Redwoods itself. We took the shortest red-track, because we were short on time. (30-45min walk). The tall trees are so inspiring and feed the soul in a way only sun shinning through ancient giant beings can. There is also a beautifully clear blue spring which is so deep, and still and clear. The spring is filed of silver ferns, which have a preserved-like feel in the crisp waters. The photos do NOT do it justice.
LAKE TARAWERA
Lake Tarawera was created when the volcanic Mount Tarawera erupted on 10 June 1886. The eruption buried an entire village, and destroyed the Pink and White terraces (one of the 8 ancient wonders of the world). There are plenty of local stories about this eruption, and how it affected the people. If you can find someone who will share the stories of their tupuna (ancestors) and the eruption, listen up. The lake itself is beautiful, and has some natural hot springs hidden away, and only accessible by boat.
KEROSENE CREEK
A 30 minute drive south of Rotorua, Kerosene creek has been on Mikey’s to-do list for some time. Its not as private as it use to be, thanks to the internet, however it is a 100% worth a visit and a swim (especially if you don’t want to go to go to a commercial pool, and why would you when there are free options?). Kerosene creek is a naturally heated thermal spring, which jut happens to be a river. there’s a great little waterfall, which is like a natural spa jet! You can swim in the warm waters up and down the river, and find a little spot you don’t need to share with others.
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Word to the wise: take off your jewelry. The sulphur will mess with it. Our white gold wedding rings came out looking not so white. (although some intensive cleaning got them almost back to their pre-kerosene-swim state).
NIGHT LUGE-ROTORUA SKYLINE
Luging is fun anytime of day. But nightime brings a whole new experience. The prices are cheaper, the tracks are lit up with colourful lights, the chairlift didn’t set off my fear of heights, the gondola ride up gives you an epic view of Rotoruas twinkling lights, there are less people, less kids and the only pay-off is that you cant go on the advanced track (which was closed for maintenance anyways). I didn’t take any photos, but a guy gave us 2 free rides each that he hadn’t used and was on his way home, so this was quite possibly the highlight of our trip. 10/10 would recommend.
KUIRUA PARK
So, I’ve talked about seeing things in Rotora for free, this is another one of those things. You could pay to go and see thermal springs, and bubbling mud (and in all honesty, its probably worth it, they are MUCH more epic plus theres also geysers) but this is where you go if you want to see it for free.
There are also some free foot baths “Te Waimirimiri O te Kuirua” which are located in the middle of the park (near the kids playground, just behind the local Saturday morning market-this threw us off for a bit). Take a towel to sit on, and for your feet after!
HUKA FALLS
Huka Falls is technically in the Taupo region-but we visited on the way home (it is on the thermal highway though! does that count?). Huka Falls is one of the most visited natural attractions in New Zealand. With 300,000 liters of turquoise water passing through the 11m falls every second, the power of the falls is something else. You can go on a jetboat tour to see the base of the falls closer up, or just walk to one of the many viewpoints.
Where we stayed: At a great little airbnb just out of town (on the north side) which cost us a whooping (haha) $80 for two nights for the both of us. Thanks Diny for being a great host and staying up for us, and then for letting us sleep in on Sunday through our check out time. Honestly, Airbnb has revolutionized holidays for us. So cheap, so easy, so nice to have a local right there to talk to about where to go, what to see and what to eat.
Where we ate:
- Le Cafe De Paris: Crepes and Affogato coffee for brunch. Hands down the best coffee I’ve ever had when visiting a new city. And the owner had a very thick french accent, which gave it that very authentic feel. We sat and ate and drank and admired the decor which reminded us of our 2 day trip to Paris in early 2017. I honestly didn’t enjoy Paris that much when I was there-it was smelling and dirty and it was a last minute decision so I hadn’t brushed up my french so I was effectively in my own little bubble the whole time. However, sitting in that little Parisian cafe in the middle of Rotorua I very much enjoyed re-living all the highlights of our quick trip to ‘the most romantic city in the wold.’
- Third Pace Cafe Rotorua: Overlooking Ohinemutu and the beautiful Lake Rotorua, this was the perfect place to sip coffee and eat a suburb Eggs Bene (and I’m a big fan and critic of eggs bene). Ohinemutu is a living Maori village. aka: classic New Zealand vibes, and I’m very jealous of the people who get to live in such a beautiful place.
- The Landing Cafe: For coffee (wow, we drink a LOT of coffee) and a bowl of fries. Situated RIGHT on the shores of Lake Tarawa, this is by far the prettiest place I’ve had a cappuccino and fries, in the world I’ve explored so far. Also a great place for a beersie, and the food looked pretty great. We sat all evening watching the sun go down, the clouds change colour, intermittent tourist groups arrive on a WWII landing craft and drive off into the lake, and then hilariously take photos of each other posing awkwardly and hand-standing on the picturesque dock.
Where we would have done if we were super rich and/or had lots of time:
A rather incomplete list for my own reference for anytime we have overseas visitors, or when we manage to escape to Rotorua for a week or so.
- Packraft/kayak the 18-20km to Hot Water Beach (Te Rata Bay) on Lake Tarawera and camp there the night
- Visit the Burried Village, and maybe do some snorkeling on the lake
- Climb Mt Tarawera
- Climb Rainbow Mountain
- Visit Okere falls
- Zorb, Zipline, Giant Swing, Bungy (need I say more?)
- Hells Gate mudbaths and thermal wonderland park (hello $75 dollars each)
- Bikeriding-there’s heaps of awesome looking tracks around the place!
Happy Holidaying
Moochelle