Ports of Tauranga/Rotorua/Tga - 6 Hours Rotorua Highlights Tour

Walk through our native bush and view the Okere Falls and if you are lucky see some rafts come over the Grade 5 waterfall

Walk through the Redwood Forest at your leisure, or for an additional cost complete the Redwood Treewalk seen here www.treewalk.co.nz

Popular for swimming, boating, trout fishing and water sports, this small circular lake has an easy circuit walking track and links to the mountain bike trail network in Whakarewarewa Forest. The name comes from Māori history.

Locals also refer to the lake as the Green Lake. Rotokākahi is sacred to Māori, and Motutawa Island in the middle of the lake is the burial ground of many Māori ancestors. The lake is privately owned by local iwi (tribes) and no swimming, fishing or boating is permitted.

Government Gardens is one of Rotorua’s historic landmarks and most popular tourism destinations. You'll want to have your camera on hand for this spot! Originally known as Paepaekumana, the local Māori iwi (tribe) gifted 50 acres of land to the Crown in the late 1800s “for the benefit of the people of the world”. The land contained a geothermal area with several therapeutic hot pools. Following the ratification of the original gift in 1883, the reserve was vested in the Government of New Zealand in 1898 as an area where the thermal waters could be used and promoted as a health spa similar to those in Europe. One of the most iconic and well photographed buildings in New Zealand

Just beyond the Rotorua Museum and along the south-eastern corner of Lake Rotorua, you’ll find an amazing volcanic playground to explore that’s also home to unique plantlife and threatened birds who’ve adapted in order to survive in this harsh environment

The northern end of Rotorua has a public park that is definitely alive and well. Walking tracks lead to numerous areas of vigorous geothermal activity. Provided you stay on the cool side of the safety fences, visitors are generally quite safe. In early Maori times the small lake in the park was much cooler and was known as Taokahu. Legend tells us that a beautiful young woman named Kuiarau was bathing in the waters when a taniwha (legendary creature) dragged her to his lair below the lake. The gods above were angered and made the lake boil so the Taniwha would be destroyed forever. From that time on, the bubbling lake and the steaming land around it have been known by the name of the lost woman, although the spelling has changed a little.