Rotorua, steam, geysers and Māori culture

Rotorua sits on the shore of a large, round lake in the middle of New Zealand's North Island, in the crater of an ancient volcano. The ground beneath it is still hot. Steam drifts from vents in the parks, the gardens and the roadside, pools of grey mud bubble and plop, and the air carries a faint smell of sulphur that most visitors stop noticing after a day. The town owes its existence as a resort to this geothermal activity, and it has been drawing visitors since the nineteenth century, when Europeans came to bathe in its hot springs in search of cures.

It is also the home of the Te Arawa people, whose ancestors arrived by canoe several centuries ago and settled around the lakes, using the hot springs for cooking, bathing and warmth. Rotorua is one of the best places in New Zealand to learn about Māori culture.

Geysers and hot springs

At Whakarewarewa, on the southern edge of town, a geothermal valley holds dozens of geysers, hot pools and mud pools. The largest geyser, Pōhutu, is the biggest active geyser in the southern hemisphere. It erupts many times a day, sending a column of boiling water and steam high into the air. Te Puia, the visitor centre beside it, is also home to a national institute of Māori arts, where students train in traditional wood carving, weaving and stone carving.

Next door, in the living village of Whakarewarewa, families still live among the hot springs, as their ancestors did. They cook food in steaming pools and boxes set over the vents, and bathe in the hot water. Local guides show visitors around and explain the traditions.

South of the town, Wai-O-Tapu is a strange, colourful geothermal landscape of craters, steaming pools and mineral terraces. Its Champagne Pool fizzes with bubbles of gas, its edge stained orange with minerals, and its Artist's Palette is a patchwork of greens, yellows and reds.

The eruption of 1886

The area's geothermal power has a darker side. In 1886, Mount Tarawera, south-east of the town, erupted without warning in the night, burying villages and killing more than a hundred people. It also destroyed the Pink and White Terraces, great natural staircases of silica on the shore of a nearby lake, which had been one of the most famous natural sights of the southern hemisphere, drawing visitors from across the world. A buried village, excavated from the ash, can be visited today.

Lake Rotorua has its own story. Mokoia Island, in the middle of the lake, is the setting of one of the best-known Māori love stories, of Hinemoa, a young woman of high rank who swam across the lake at night, guided by the sound of a flute, to reach Tūtānekai, the young man her family would not let her marry. On the edge of town, the Whakarewarewa Forest has a grove of tall Californian redwoods planted early in the twentieth century, with walking and cycling trails among them.

Māori culture

Rotorua is the place many visitors first experience a Māori welcome, the pōwhiri, at a marae, the meeting ground of a community. The welcome includes a challenge from a warrior, speeches, songs and the hongi, the pressing of noses. Evenings often include performances of song and dance, including the haka. They usually end with a hāngī, a feast of meat and vegetables cooked slowly in an earth oven, sometimes using the geothermal heat.

The town's Government Gardens hold a grand Tudor-style bath house of 1908, built for visitors taking the waters, now a museum. Modern spas on the lakeshore still let visitors soak in the hot mineral water.

Travelsphere's Discover New Zealand, twenty-one nights, includes Rotorua with Auckland, Paihia, Wellington and the South Island, from Picton and Christchurch to Queenstown, Milford Sound and Dunedin.

Just You's seventeen-night New Zealand tour for solo travellers includes Rotorua, Waitomo and Napier on the North Island, and much of the South. Explore Worldwide's Walking in New Zealand, eighteen nights, includes Rotorua and Tongariro National Park, Wellington, the Queen Charlotte Track and Motuara Island in the Marlborough Sounds, Abel Tasman National Park, Nelson, Westport and Punakaiki.

Give Rotorua at least a full day and a night. The geysers are best in the cool of early morning, when the steam is thickest, and the evening belongs to the hāngī.