Our favourite area in New Zealand? Quite possibly!! Ridiculous colour lakes, hot water bubbling from the ground, the satisfying sound of mud pools and some of the most beautiful hills we’ve ever seen!
Day 62 – Kiwi House, Huka Falls and Horse Riding
We had a 10am booking for the Otorhanga Kiwi House from Bookme so were off and out before 10. This is a place that have been trying to save the Kiwi since the 70’s. They also conserve and breed other rare New Zealand species, inviting people in to help educate and to fund the work.
We knew that the chances of seeing a Kiwi in the wild were pretty slim, and to do it we’d have to go to certain parks and stay up late. Many of the tours would not take Aiden as he’s too young too. SO to be safe we thought we’d go and see a Kiwi in captivity as they are such strange birds – unlike anything we’ve seen in the wild really.
The main draw at Otorohanga is the Kiwi House, where the conditions are kept dark so the birds come out during the day so this seemed like a good place to see them. After your eyes adjust to the low light you can see into the enclosure pretty well.
We’d arrived in time for the Kiwi talk so were in the Kiwi House for about half an hour in total. In this time the Kiwi were visible the whole time and one was right in front of the double glass for ages – less than a metre from the kids faces! They loved it of course!
We’d all thought that the Kiwi would be smaller, but these are not small birds, especially the Brown Kiwi, which is about 40cm tall. They are truly flightless, with no wings at all and move about in the leaf litter, poking their long bill into the leaves until they find insects.
We weren’t here for more than a few hours as it’s pretty small and we’d seen many of the species in the wild already.
We had a couple of hour drive across the island to the north end of Lake Taupo along small roads through green hills. We hardly saw anyone else on these roads – farming country.
Then we arrived at the Huka Dam. This dam releases water a couple of times a day and it’s become quite a tourist draw so we thought it worth checking out. Arriving only a few minutes before it was due to release we started at the top by the dam initially, with about 100 other people! The buzzer went off and we were all watching eagerly as the gate lifted and water started to escape. Not very impressive really, so we ran down to the next viewpoint so we could see the water fill the gorge.
This was a little more exciting, and it was interesting to see how water can flood down a gorge. The photo’s are before and after.
Then, 7km down the road, more of the tourists at the Huka Falls. We parked up at the top car park and walked the trail down to the falls. These are where the river flowing from Lake Taupo is forced through a gorge of volcanic rocks and fires out the end over a small 11m drop.
Not breath taking but pretty, and the river itself on the other side was very picturesque.
Had we had more time we’d have walked the trail into Taupo but we had another appointment on our busy day at a small farm towards Rotorua.
On Airbnb I’d found a really reasonably priced horse riding lessons. Alison takes you out on her training pony and charges a reasonable fee. The area she was in was lovely, with loads of small, steep, green hills. A very picturesque place to watch the kids riding.
Alison first got the kids leading the Pony, Sunny, before leading them around for balance. Then they got to learn to stop, go and turn left and right, mainly using their legs but also the reins and voice. Proper lessons rather than what I got in my group lessons as a teenager!
Both kids had a great time and in half an hour were steering and stopping by themselves (on a long lead rein).
Whilst Evie was riding, Aiden struck up a friendship with Alison’s son and the two were off running up and down the hills.
Whilst the kids played, I was allowed to have a bit of a go myself. Having not been on a horse for about 15 years it was pretty weird! The saddle was a Western and I had no stirrups which was also really odd for me. I’d forgotten pretty much everything but was moving about (with no lead rein) within 10 minutes. Still got it. Sort of!
This place was actually a farm stay, so it was a bit odd to leave to head to our actual farm stay, 15 minutes down the road, also in the region of Atiamuri.
We pulled up to see the family sitting and waving from around their outdoor table; having dinner in the evening sun. After the disappointment of the children in Warrnambool we were hoping that these children would be more up for playing with ours. We were not disappointed! Both children (Christian and Emelia) quickly introduced themselves and then they were all off playing like they’d been friends for years. I love that with kids.
This farmstay is a little different in that the bedrooms and bathroom are in a separate cabin with a kettle and fridge, but to cook you go over to the main house and use their kitchen. This gave us opportunity to chat to the parents, Saul and Katrin, whilst cooking our own dinner in their large kitchen with simply superb views – if I could design the view from my house it would literally look like this.
They’d only bought the farm a year before, with two acres and a good sized house for half what our house is currently worth. With an orchard, vegetable patch and views like this, maybe we should emigrate?
In total contrast to pretty much everyone else we’ve ever spoken to, Chris and I concluded that we actually preferred the North Island to the South. Controversial I know! Whilst we liked the snow capped mountains, and Lake Pukaki was superfluous, a lot of the rest was pretty flat and there are only so many flat cow and sheep fields you can look at.
In contrast, most of what we’ve seen on the North Island is rolling green hills. There are still lots of sheep and cattle, but they look better on slopes! The mountains are missing, but it seems hills are more important to us. Not what I expected to be honest!
Before we’d even finished dinner, the kids had been invited to sleepover in the lounge of the farm house that night, with a film, sweets and popcorn already cooking. Seriously lovely for the kids as this is exactly the sort of thing they’ve been missing.
We retreated to our cabin for bed and left the kids in the house. Who knows how much sleep they’ll get!?
Day 63 – Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland
The day dawned warm and sunny. The kids were up pretty early and went off to join in the Sunday morning family tradition of sliding down the hill on feed bags, which takes a bit of practice and seemingly requires shorter legs than Evie’s (as you have to be able to hold them right off the ground).
We had to break their fun short as we wanted to get to the Waiotapu ‘Geothermal Wonderland’ in time for the geyser eruption at 10.15. The place has a horrible name which would normally make us avoid it like the plague, but having read various reviews and blogs on the various options for seeing geothermal activity we had to come here as some of the features just aren’t seen elsewhere.
Our trip started as we’d expected, with loads of people turning up and being parked in the car parks by the geyser before trooping in and sitting on rows of wooden benches, waiting for the show to start. And that’s what this geyser is really, a show. There’s a short talk about its history before they pour some (supposedly eco friendly) surfactant into the top of the geyser. Normally the geyser would go off naturally every few days, but to make it more of a show for tourists they add the surfactant to break the surface tension and get it going whenever they want. Cue a geyser…
The kids were fairly impressed, but the enjoyment is a little ruined by the sheer number of people standing in front of you and taking photos and videos, obscuring the view. It can go off for a while once going, but after a couple of minutes everyone starts to head out to get back into cars and queue out to the other car park further down the road where you can get into the main park. We joined in.
At the main entrance to the park entrance was fairly well staggered due to only one car at a time being able to exit the car park. With a deep breath and a reminder to ourselves to not get frustrated with crowds, that we weren’t in a rush, we headed in.
We needn’t have worried really, there were a lot of people in, but there are quite a few km of one way trails so we rarely had to wait more than 30 seconds to get a good view of anything.
The trails start with the craters, which are formed by the acidic gases slowly eroding the rock from below until it collapses, then it rises out of the steaming holes.
Then there are mud pools, one was such a deliciously chocolate brown colour I wanted to eat it. Warm chocolate pudding 😊
After this the trail arrives at the Rainbow pools, where there are some ridiculously yellow areas due to the sulphur, and some orange and blue.
Up and over a hill on the additional trails around some other steaming lakes and streams, with super green algae and water boiling up out of the ground.
Then one of my favourite bits, but one which most other people walked past barely noticing! Some tiny terraces which were covered in green algae and looked like miniature rice paddy terraces. They spread for a hundred metres in either direction.
Another big draw is the champagne pools, blue, super clear pools which are bubbling in a way that makes them look like champagne (hence the name!). Around the edge it’s bright orange! And of course it’s super steamy.
Then the main reason we’d had to come here. I was hoping it wasn’t all Instagram filters and I wasn’t disappointed. The luminous green lake. How this colour can be natural is beyond me. Something to do with the light refracting and the mineral mix in the water. Bonkers. Even the kids were amazed and they can be pretty hard to please these days! There aren’t many places on earth that Aiden can wear his luminous top and be camouflaged!
On the way back out to the main road we stopped to look at another free mud pool on the side of the road. This one was much better than any mud pools in the park, more of a mud lake, with numerous places that the mud bubbles up with force. We loved the sound – really calming.
We had lunch out at Waiotapu as the toasted sandwiches were very reasonably priced. Mine was missing a filling so I got another one free 😊. Then we’d made plans with our farm friends to hang out with them in the afternoon so we drove back.
Emelia wanted to jump off the bridge into the lake at the bottom of their road so the kids all changed into their swimmers and we wandered down (the adults all knew there was no way we were going in!). After climbing down the ladder and dipping their toes in the kids too were less convinced… Instead they sat and played with some roadkill. I’m not sure what they were doing but it involved a lot of poking with sticks. I guess it’s educational in a way!
Both families cooked and ate dinner outside together which was lovely. Finally weather hot enough to sit outside and eat in the evening!
Day 64 – Mount Rainbow
The kids were up and off to play with their new friends whilst we got up and packed. Then Emelia was desperate for a kids vs adults football game, which the kids won. Time for a last trip around the farm in the trailer pulled by Christian driving the ride on mover.
We managed to drag the kids away at nearly 12 so it was lunch time before we pulled up at the base of Mount Rainbow. It’s a 3.5km track to the top one way, and didn’t seem that big a mountain so we set off thinking we’d try and get to the top to eat.
There’s a stop about 500m up to look at the cliffs of one of the crater lakes. It’s stained red with iron oxide, part of the reason it’s called Mount Rainbow.
The kids were flagging and the top did not seem to be approaching, so we found a bench with views part way up and stopped to eat. From here it was actually quite a slog to the top, solidly up for the whole last couple of km. The kids did great though, Evie made it up by making herself a taco out of leaves on the way up, whilst Aiden was too busy looking at the different types of ferns so he could identify them in a new mini book he’d been given by his farm friends. It’s all about distraction for them!
The views from the top were pretty good and went as far as the volcanoes to the south of Lake Taupo (the ones we couldn’t see when we were there due to cloud), and across the massive Kaingaroa Forest – the largest man made forest in New Zealand, covering 2900 square km, and the second largest in the Southern Hemisphere.
We headed back down the same way we’d come, but much faster this time (Aiden ran the last bit).
The plan had been to go and try out one of the free hot pools local to the walking track after finishing, but none of us were really that keen so we decided to give it a miss and treat ourselves to a cake or something at a café instead. We didn’t really pass anywhere on the way to Rotorua so grabbed a few things from the supermarket to eat in the guest house instead – much cheaper!
Our guest house was lovely, with a really homely lounge/dining area which looked like someone’s house. It was really warm as it’s heated by the geothermal water which is pretty cool. No heating bills!
We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening chilling out and resting our feet. Aiden read through all the kids books there whilst Evie helped Chris choose the treats from the shops.
Day 65 – Whakarewarewa Maori village, orienteering and mini golf with rabbits
An action packed day today. We started with a trip to the Maori village in Rotorua – Whakarewarewa. There are MANY Maori villages and cultural performance options around Rotorua, and we weren’t that sure that we actually wanted to do any of them as they’re pretty expensive and to be honest, I find the Haka pretty off putting. Why would I pay to see that? But we felt that we should try to learn something about Maori culture whilst we were here, and after reading the reviews of a few settled on this one as it’s a real village where the Maori actually live, and many said it had a genuine feel, rather than just being a tourist attraction, we decided to go.
We arrived just in time for the 9am tour, which was great because at this time the village was empty of other people and the tour group size was small – around 10 other people. Our tour guide Michael was really great. He was really charismatic and held the group’s attention well, even the kids were listening to him. The guides live in the village, or are at least Maori themselves, and we had two trainee guides with our tour watching him and learning.
We were taken straight in to see an old style sleeping hut used by the Maori during winter. These were tiny, with a low door and built right next to the pools so that they could keep warm in the bitterly cold winters. In the summer they could return to their larger summer houses.
The tour also took us through to the cooking pools and the bathing pools. The Maori here do not need to light fires to cook, they steam their food with wooden boxes over hot air vents, or by dipping into the boiling hot pools. Water is siphoned off from these pools into baths which fill overnight so they are cool enough to bathe in in the morning. It’s all very clever and simplistic.
There are of course cons to living over a geothermal area, as the sulphuric acid in the gases is slowly eroding the rocks, meaning that some of the houses are now unsafe. There’s also the possibility of new geysers erupting in the middle of your floorboards too, although that is rare…
We ended the tour watching the geysers here erupting, naturally this time.
With over an hour until the cultural show we wandered all the trails around the geothermal features and to the lookouts. There were bubbling mud pools, lakes and a whole swamp area of boiling water pools which you wander across via boardwalks. One of our favourite geothermal experiences (especially seeing as we were the only people on them) and eerie wandering amongst the steam.
We passed the 10am tour on the way back in. It must have had about 40 people in it so we were very glad to have got the earlier one!
We wanted front row seats for the show so headed in about 25mins before the start. The whole village was not the showy tourist area we were expecting, it felt like wandering through a genuine town, and the theatre was no different. A simple stage, with rows of plastic chairs covered by tarp. Nothing showy. We whiled away the time till the show with some card games.
It was only 30 minutes but the show was excellent – Chris thinks it may be his travelling highlight so far! They covered the welcome dance, dancing with the Poi and sticks, a love song and the haka. The women’s skill with the Poi (balls on the end of string which are spun around all at once) was amazing and the coordination with the sticks was impressive. It was well explained what they were showing us and they got everyone up and joining in with the moves and words for one song. The kids loved it!
The last thing for us to do was to sample the traditional Maori food, cooked in the geothermal vents and pools. The price for a Hangi pie and steamed corn on the cob was very reasonable, and we sampled the steamed fruit pudding too. Yum!
With our bellies full, we left and drove around the corner to The Redwoods. I’d seen online somewhere that you can pick up orienteering maps from the visitor centre here and it was true. After teaching the kids some of the basics of map reading (contours, boundaries, orientation etc) we handed over to them to lead us to the different markers.
Our route led us through the Redwood trees, meandering back and forth. It started raining, the trees provided us some shelter but the map got pretty wet! Just about readable… A good learning experience for the kids (and Chris as I am always the map reader) and fun to do together outside – we need to do more of this at home…
After finding our 10 markers we headed back home for a few hours downtime and to cook up the lamb our friends on the farm had given us as a leaving gift in a tagine. Delicious 😊.
After dinner (and around their bedtime) we took the kids to the mini golf up the road where they put up fairy lights at night and have a load of massive rabbits which roam the course, creating additional obstacles for you.
We had a great time, and there were genuinely rabbits sitting on the course at times – not your usual obstacle, and not one I can just go with my usual ‘whack it hard’ approach! At the end if you get a bullseye you get another free go – we got 2 out of 4 so the kids went around again at super speed.
Back home for a late bedtime.
Next stop the Northlands, the Coromandel Peninsula and north of Auckland. Or check out our previous adventures from Wellington to Waitomo.