Rotorua

For the best overall cultural experience in New Zealand learning about Maori life and traditions, Rotorua is the town to visit. My first visit was only for one night on the Kiwi Experience bus, but I managed to jam pack three activities into that short time. When I went back with Lewis, we had four days to chill out and see more.

From whitewater sledd/ging to geothermal pools to Maori culture, here's the rundown of activities! (Oh, plus a day trip to the Waitomo glowworm caves which you can read about here.)

Accommodation

The first time I was in Rotorua with Kiwi Experience, we stayed in the local Base. Admittedly, as much as I talk Base hostels down (because they suck), this may have been the nicest one I've stayed in of the whole chain. The dorms were very new and included balconies, there was a pool outside, and the Lava Bar was large and clean with a big front porch.

However, I still preferred the hostel I went to the second time, Crash Palace. We stayed in a dorm the first night and a private room the next three, and both options were very nice. It was extremely central, had bright colors and a chill atmosphere, a lounge with couches and a TV, a room with a pool table, deck with a hot tub, kitchens both upstairs and downstairs, and an upstairs dining room. But really, it's the free stuff that made this hostel dear to my heart! There was free wifi, coffee, tea, and even pasta and rice (they'd fill up your cooking pot at reception). You could make some awesomely delicious meals with all the free spices they had available. They also had a free Friday barbeque and likely some other events, and basically overall I really enjoyed our stay.

Wandering Rotorua

Just walking around Rotorua is an interesting experience. Something people will tell you about the town is that it smells like rotten eggs. It does smell like eggs, but to me (maybe I'm weird) it just reminded me of breakfast. I seem to be in the minority on liking the sulphur smell.

I would definitely recommend heading through the pretty, open gardens where the museum is situated. I didn't pay for the museum, but I did enjoy a sundae out front. The building is the old bath house. There's also a gazebo, flowers, palm trees, and a geothermal pool on the grounds.

You can walk through Rotorua and visit a Maori village which looks a bit poor but is very cultural. You'll find a meeting hall, church, and cemetery there.

Rotorua is a weird place due to the all of the geothermal activity. You'll see warning signs all over and steam just pouring out of the ground, out of vents in people's yards, and even out of the sewers.

There's a thermal park (a free one) in the center of town with lagoons and ponds surrounded by fenced walkways. With all of the steam pouring off of them it's really eerie.

Another nice attraction in town is the redwood forest. I would not recommend walking there, however, as we did that, got lost, and didn't reach it for 90 minutes. A bus would be a more practical choice. The tall redwoods are worth a visit though!

When you're finished sightseeing, head to Eat Street for dinner where you'll find restaurant after restaurant from all different cultures down this pedestrian-only square.

Spas

Another nice way to end the day is to head to one of the many spas that Rotorua has on offer. We chose the Polynesian Spa more for proximity than anything. They even had a decent deal on for a half hour add-on in a private pool, so we took advantage of that and had a little room to ourselves to start with.

Afterwards, we headed back out to the public adult pools. There were about seven of them with varying degrees of heat. There was one large green pool underneath the roof, then the rest were set in tiers leading down to the waterfront. The water was meant to be good for your skin.

I love hot tubs, but I even had to stick with the pools that were around 38 degrees Celsius. The hottest we went in was 42C which is about 107 Fahrenheit and that was almost painful. Any time I moved the slightest bit the heat would get too intense.

One feature I did like was a little reflexology walkway down at the very bottom. It had water just a few inches deep and rocks and pebbles covering the bottom to massage your feet and hit pressure points as you walk. I think I'll add that to my already unrealistic dream house one day. Next to my stone patio and hot tub with waterfall.

Skyline Luge

Although I have not yet written a Queenstown blog, the luge is something these two towns have in common. Seeing as I actually did the Queenstown luge first (didn't get around to Rotorua's until my second trip up), I did a lot of mental comparing of the two while in Rotorua. While I preferred Queenstown's views, I think the tracks themselves in Rotorua were more fun. Not that the views from the top in Rotorua were terrible or anything.

Basically, the luge is a little roller cart that you ride down a winding path on a hill. You can control your speed by pulling back on the handlebars, but you'll actually pick up a ton of fun momentum if you just let it go! (Potentially dangerous advice, sorry.)

The luge in Rotorua is called the Skyline, and you can reach it easily by bus (it's not far at all but don't miss the last bus back like we did or you might have a mini breakdown about having to pay for a cab out of your dwindling bank account also like I did). You get your helmets, take a gondola to the top, and ride the luge back down. You can pay for however many rides you want. We paid for three since there were three different tracks.

The first was a scenic track through the forest which I enjoyed (the random section of dinosaurs may have contributed to that). The second was the intermediate track, then we stopped at the top for ice cream before the final track, the advanced one. It was so much fun! There were some sharp hills and I actually came off the track flying over the first one. The only downside was that Lewis beat me to the end.

Ah, just a velociraptor out on a morning stroll.

Te Puia

Getting to the awesome activities I took part in on Kiwi Experience now, let's start with the paid geothermal park, Te Puia. There's plenty of Maori culture to be seen here as well from the 12 gods of each month up at the front to the Maori weaving and sculpture schools to the temples on the grounds.

November god!

Afterwards we saw some bubbling mud pools and actually stopped at a boiling spring so that a Maori woman could hard boil some eggs right there for us! They were delicious and that Rotorua egg smell had been making me hungry.

We headed to the geyser area last and hung around there checking out the very blue lagoon and other springs while waiting for it to go off. Unfortunately, the rest of our group got impatient and wanted to go ahead to the kiwi building, but we did stop at a lookout point there where we saw the huge geyser go off back at the bridge.

When I say "kiwi building", I mean a dark indoor enclosure housing a few kiwi birds. If you haven't seen kiwis, well, they aren't very exciting. They're kind of a hilarious national animal to have, actually. They're large ground-dwelling birds that have become endangered due to being easy prey for other animals. They're easily frightened by light and loud noises, so you have to keep quiet and avoid flash photos while visiting them. A little pathetic, but they're cute.

Kaitiaki Whitewater Sledging

Alright, so part of what makes Kiwi Experience so great is that every time you get on the bus to the next destination, your guide gives you the lowdown on all of the cool activities available to you in the upcoming town and passes around a clipboard where you can sign up for whatever you want. They book it for you, all you have to do is pay.

One of the activities that caught my interest was the whitewater rafting. With Kaitiaki Adventures, you could actually raft down a waterfall on the Kaituna River. I liked that idea, but I had also been whitewater rafting before and found it slightly unexciting. My friend, however, had never been rafting, so he wanted to do it. After looking at the options, we realized you could actually SLEDGE the river instead of raft, and when we mentioned it to our guide, Mangee, he responded far more enthusiastically to that option than the rafting. We decided to book it.

This was such an awesome activity! It also took place on the Kaituna River, so we could see the rafting group at various point alongside us, and with the exception of the waterfall which is just at the very start (you can't sledge down that), it looked like we were having way more fun than them.

Just to explain what sledging is, by the way, it's taking a plastic boogy board and jumping straight into the rapids with it. Sledging is a UK/Aussie/Kiwi term that they use instead of "sledding", so I actually refused to call it anything but sledding the whole time I was there. I've just decided to use sledge in this blog entry so as not to confuse anyone.

We were geared up in wetsuits, flippers, helmets, and life jackets, then they drove us to the river and gave us a briefing on land. There were only four of us on the trip plus our guides. The guides were Maori so they said a prayer at the entry point to the river before we all took turns jumping in.

We practiced our steering and our rolling, then we were off! The rapids swept us away and we'd steer at the end of each dip to meet near a rock wall before continuing on. It was really fun! I also didn't smash into any rocks so I believe it was a success. What did happen, however, was getting flipped upside down a few times which is highly disorienting. It's confusing to suddenly find yourself tossed underwater not knowing which way is up.

At the last rapid, we took about three turns each being thrown back into the rapid to attempt "surfing" on our stomachs and staying above the current. That was fun aside from the time I ended up knocked backwards and spent a good few minutes choking up water.

Not only was this a super adventurous and unique activity, but the water was actually not cold! Trade the raft for a sledge and do it.

Tamaki Village

Finally, a cultural must-do is attending a Maori hangi. A hangi is a feast cooked underground, and Tamaki Village offers a very cool full evening experience complete with performances in a recreated old-style village.

Upon arrival, the Maori men emerged from the entryway in their tribal outfits to perform a haka, or war dance. If you've ever watched the All Blacks play rugby, you've probably seen them do the haka to start off. There's a lot of yelling chants, sharp movements, bulging eyes, and tongues sticking out which is all meant to intimidate rivals.

We had to elect three "chiefs" from our group (men) who approached after the haka to accept a peace offering. We were then greeted and officially welcomed into the village. There were six stations set up in front of little huts, and we all split into smaller groups to rotate around all of them.

Each station provided a different insight into Maori culture, and they invited up volunteers to interact at most of them. One showed us a women's dance twirling a ball and string (I got to join!), one was about games, one was women demonstrating crafting with flax, one was children's games, one taught us about Maori tattoos, and finally one taught the men the haka.

After we'd seen each station, we gathered back together as a large group and headed to the large underground pit where they were cooking our meal.

While they were finishing that up, we went into the meeting hall where they all put on a long performance for us. There were probably about five songs or so which they sang and danced to.

Finally it was time for food! We headed into another building for our buffet dinner. Since I couldn't eat any of the meat, they had made me a veggie lasagna and rice which was a big meal on its own, and I also had access to the extensive buffet table! I also had potatoes, kumara, bread, coleslaw, potato salad, and literally half a plate of stuffing. Plus coffee, custard, and pavlova. As a backpacker, I don't think I had eaten so well since leaving home.

The Maori people are so friendly, good-humored, and welcoming. Learning about their culture and seeing it integrated into everyday life all over New Zealand was one of the highlights of my time in the country. I might even go so far as to say that if you only have time for one spot in the North Island, make it Rotorua. You can also combine it with a trip to Taupo, but I'll talk about that next time!