Rotorua

Geysers on schedule

Pōhutu, at Te Puia in the Whakarewarewa valley, is the largest active geyser in the southern hemisphere and erupts up to 30 metres, once or twice an hour, without needing any encouragement.

Te Puia also houses the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute, where carvers and weavers train in the traditional schools, plus a kiwi conservation enclosure — one of the more reliable places to actually see a live kiwi.

Half an hour south, Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland has the surreal orange-rimmed Champagne Pool and the acid-green Devil's Bath. Its Lady Knox Geyser famously erupts at 10:15am daily because a staff member drops soap into it.

A village that never stopped

Whakarewarewa Living Māori Village is not a reconstruction. Families have lived on the geothermal field for generations and still cook in hangi steam boxes, boil food in hot pools and bathe communally in the same water.

Evening cultural experiences at Te Pā Tū, Mitai or Tamaki combine a hāngī feast cooked underground with haka, poi and waiata. They are commercial, and they are also run by the people whose culture it is.

Trees, bikes and blue water

The Redwoods Whakarewarewa Forest was planted with Californian coast redwoods in 1901 as a timber experiment. It failed commercially and left behind a magnificent forest that now holds one of the best mountain-bike networks in the world, plus an elevated Treewalk that is lit at night.

Rotorua also gave the world zorbing, invented here in 1994. The surrounding lakes — Tarawera, Ōkataina, the Blue and Green Lakes — are excellent for swimming and kayaking in summer.