Rotorua & Taupo

Rotorua is one place where the turbulent forces that formed New Zealand are most evident. This city, on the Volcanic Plateau, has one of the world’s most lively fields of geothermal activity.

Skyrocketing geysers, hot springs and boiling mud pools all tell you that this place sits squarely on the Pacific Rim of Fire. Rotorua is also the ancestral home of the Te Arawa people who settled here more than 600 years ago and their presence offers the visitor numerous cultural experiences. See the clear blue waters on a summer’s day and Lake Taupo can appear the most beautiful and tranquil place in New Zealand. Appearances deceive. Taupo is more than a lake. It is a volcano with no top – a top that was blown off in one of the largest and most devastating eruptions ever seen on the planet. Visit the Craters of the Moon and you will see evidence of its fiery birth in the geysers, steaming craters and boiling mud pools.