Hey everyone! Lauren here with Part 1 of our time exploring Rotorua! It is a town on the North Island of New Zealand and is known for its geothermal activity and Maori culture!
Driving from the Coromandel to Rotorua
The drive from our hostel on the Coromandel Peninsula to Rotorua took us about 3.5 hours. We noticed that driving times in New Zealand almost always took longer than predicted on Google Maps and Maps.me.
Exploring Downtown Rotorua
We couldn’t check into our Airbnb until later in the afternoon, so we decided to hang out in downtown Rotorua until closer to our check-in time. We found parking in a garage, and headed into the town center!
We were both very hungry so we went to a local indian food place for "lunch". It was like 3pm, so it was a kind of weird time for lunch. After a delicious lunch, we decided to explore! There is actually quite a bit to see in downtown Rotorua.
First, we stopped by the Government Gardens. There were a few several sulfur smelling pools around and a bunch of art sculptures around! In the gardens there is a cool looking building called the Rotorua Museum. The internet told me that it is a free museum, however it was closed due refurbishments to make it more structurally sound for earthquakes. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful building. We also walked past a few geothermal spas, including one called the Polynesian Spa and the Blue Baths.
Then we took a walk around Lake Rotorua. Around the lake there were several smelly sulfur pools, a gurgley geyser, and tons of birds. There were a few informational signs around the lake as well that made it the perfect introduction to Rotorua. We also stopped by the large visitors’ center to look at brochures. We grabbed several pamphlets, including maps to free hiking trails in the area.
Our Farm Airbnb
After exploring Rotorua, we paid for parking and headed to our Airbnb! We were staying at a local farm, so it was a little tricky to find. Luckily their directions were very clear, and as we pulled into the driveway our host and her daughter pulled in behind us and confirmed we were at the right spot.
There were so many wonderful animals at the Airbnb! They had 3 friendly dogs, a cat, a super cute kitten, some chickens, two turtles, two enormous pigs, and a bunch of sheep and cows.
We were staying in their home, and our hosts Matt and Cherie were so welcoming. They gave us some advice on things to do in the area, and suggested a site called Bookme to find discounts on things in New Zealand! We ended up finding tons of good deals on this site, and booked a Waitomo Cave tour and Maori Village adventure through the site.
Wai-O-Tapu Reserve Mud Pools
The next day we headed out to do some hiking! After cooking a delicious breakfast of fresh farm eggs provided by the chickens at our Airbnb, we headed out in our rental car. On the way to the redwood forest where we intended to walk, we stopped by the Wai-O-Tapu Reserve mud pools. They were right along the road, and completely free!
There was a short boardwalk where you could watch the hot mud bubble. We watched the bubbly mud for a while waiting for the best "splooge" of mud. After taking some pics and video, we continued our drive.
Redwoods and Whakarewarewa Forest
What a better place to see the California Redwood tree than New Zealand! I’ve never actually seen redwood trees, so we decided to do a hike here after a recommendation by my brother. The Redwoods were planted in the Whakarewarewa Forest in a forestry experiment and happened to grow really well!
After getting a little lost on the way thanks to crappy Maps.me directions, we stopped by the visitor’s center to look at the trail map. We decided to do "the purple hike" AKA the Tokorangi Pa track, which was 11.5km.
The hike began in the redwood grove. The trees were gigantic! The path continued up the hillside out of the redwood grove. There was supposed to be a viewpoint of Rotorua from near the top of the hill, but after starting to hike downhill, Gerrod and I realized we somehow missed it! We backtracked a bit and used Maps.me to find the viewpoint and it turns out the "viewpoint" was kind of covered by trees and wasn’t a very good viewpoint.
Despite the bad viewpoint, it was a wonderful hike through the woods!
Kerosene Creek
On our way back to our Airbnb following our Redwoods walk, we stopped by Kerosene Creek! Kerosene creek is a hot spring that mixes with stream water making a hot tub temperature pool under a waterfall! There was a quite a long gravel road to Kerosene Creek, but when we arrived there was a fairly large parking area with a hole in the ground potty. After changing into our swimsuits in the lovely toilet room, we started down the walking path to Kerosene falls.
The walk was very short and easy, and you could see the steam coming off the creek the whole walk! Luckily, there weren’t too many people at the waterfall when we arrived. The water was sooo warm and relaxing!
We relaxed in the water, and submerged ourselves a bit. AFTER we dunked our heads in the water, someone else mentioned to us not to dunk your head in the water as there is some type of infection you can get. I did some after-the-fact research and determined the infection she warned us about was actually amoebic meningitis. Although very rare, amoebic meningitis is a serious disease that leads to inflammation of the brain and is usually fatal. Luckily Gerrod and I are not dead so there’s that.
After our soak in Kerosene Creek, we headed back to our Airbnb farm to play with the kitten and decide what to do with the rest of our time in Rotorua!
Until next time!
Lauren (and Gerrod)
