New Zealand fashion and lifestyle blog

Rotorua roadtrip

Previously my trips to Rotorua consisted of the gondola and the Redwood forest. Nice, but fairly tame. So I can’t tell you how excited I was to be able to go on the most unique experience on a weekend – and take the kids…

Previously my trips to Rotorua consisted of the gondola and the Redwood forest. Nice, but fairly tame. So I can’t tell you how excited I was to be able to return there for the most unique experience – and take the kids.

I found it interesting to read that Rotorua was the birthplace of New Zealand tourism, with visitors flocking to see the Pink and White Terraces until they were buried in the eruption of Mt Tarawera in the late 19th century. The spirit of tourism – and of hospitality, particularly by Maori, who value good food as highly as I do – lives on.

The itinerary Destination Rotorua recommended for us included staying at Regent Rotorua, visiting Treetops Lodge, a flight with HELiPRO, a cruise on Pure Cruise, a facial at Polynesian Spa, and a Maori meal and tour at Te Puia. I could actually not contain myself from several squeals as I read the itinerary. Then, the trauma set in of how to pack for all these amazing activities.

So after a great deal of packing, we set off southwards on a roadtrip to remember, to Rotorua.

Day 1 – Friday

The word that would sum up my impression of Rotorua would be soul. Oh, and perhaps unique. The uniqueness and soul began upon arriving at the Regent Rotorua – which incidentally gets the highest rating of any Rotorua hotel on TripAdvisor – with the warm welcome and good humour of their reception staff.

The retro looking hotel building has been fully revamped with a chic makeover into Rotorua’s newest design boutique hotel and the decorators weren’t shy of using a bit of the old bling in the process.

Each room and suite features dramatic contemporary decor and designer furniture and the hotel also offers a spa treatment area, thermal pool and a mini gym. The Monsoon showers were a definite plus.

Located at 1191 Pukaki St, it’s also central to the ‘Eat Street’ around the corner, but we dined in-house at the hotel’s contemporary-styled dining room. I had duck leg and duck sausages on puy lentils- amazing. Mains are priced at $34 and are a generous size.

Lily had the fish and chips and salad from the kids menu ($15) which was so good I have to admit I helped her eat the snapper goujons myself. Only, you know, to avoid them going to waste…

We got dessert on Room Service in our suite; a sublime date and ginger pud with mascarpone, and pannacotta with icecream.

The dining room had a regal theme – aptly for the Regent – with crystal curtains and wall art of crowns.

Day 2 – Saturday

Bright and early we checked in at HELiPRO Te Puia Base on Hemo Rd for a safety briefing for a 9am flight. This was a much-awaited activity for Kev as he’d never been in a helicopter in his life. By coincidence, I’d only ever been in one flying to Rotorua, from Auckland for the Crocs launch at Agroventures last year.

Everyone’s weight is noted so they calculate enough fuel and seating placements, and if you are going outside on the mountain, they say to wear a warm jacket and wear strong covered shoes for the gravel.

A clear drawcard for the region has to be the geothermal activity and seeing geysers and craters from the air. The company has an exclusive landing concession for Mt Tarawera meaning you can walk on the volcano, or take a tour to White Island, New Zealand’s only active marine volcano.

Our pilot pointed out landmarks and recounted anecdotes as we flew above, including how a boatload of Pink and White Terraces tourists saw a spirit waka (Maori canoe) on Lake Tarawera days before it erupted. Eerie. No spirit waka or even ghost choppers for us today though, and no eruptions, either.

Baby Louis will be gutted when he’s 7 that he slept right through a helicopter ride.

We saw the site of the Pink and White Terraces and the Buried Village, both buried by the eruption of Mt Tarawera over 100 years ago. Luckily scientists now measure volcanic activity for signs of the next eruption.

Lush flat lands around the lakes.

Mt Edgecumbe.

Rotorua is situated close to the place where great tectonic plates meet, thus the land has been moving for thousands of years and continues to do so.

Below: For the crater good – Mt Tarawera crater.

Touchdown at base after a memorable flight. I have to admit I was so nervous about flying I almost kissed the tarmac like the Pope. But I needn’t have worried, we were in safe and capable hands the whole time.

From the air, we crossed the land, to the water.

You can’t really visit Rotorua without spending some time either on, or in, the water.

Pure Cruise, based at the Amora Lake Resort at Okawa Bay, offers a sailing experience on Tiua, a 53 foot catamaran, that you can book for a private charter as we had, or on a group on its regular daily cruises.

Its byline is eco-tourism, and it aims to have minimal impact on the environment, from recycling, to using sail rather than motors wherever possible, down to using eco handwash on board. The cabin proudly displayed its Rotorua Business Excellence Award.

Cruises offer a range of activities from trout fishing, sight-seeing, sailing, swimming, or taking a soak in Lake Rotoiti natural hot pools that are only accessible by boat. We just did the latter. And, of course, more eating!

A delicious BBQ lunch is provided and they even made peanut butter sandwiches for Lily to eat, which she typically ignored, dining instead on the vintage cheddar.

Below: canapes mid-morning on the 11am cruise, which was followed by a hot steak and lamb lunch with divine salads, all prepared by the Amora Resort.

And on to dessert.

We absolutely loved this and would heartily recommend Pure Cruise to anyone. I think the $220-odd cost is so worthwhile for a 2-hour cruise with food. You’ll remember it forever. I’ve spent more than that on shoes that I most certainly won’t remember forever.

The trip would be beautiful with the natural scenery alone. But it was made special by the charming host and owner of the boat, Matt Horder, who looks after you like you’re friends and family. Only with far, far better food than I ever serve to my friends and family.

I’d been to Lake Rotoiti quite a bit as a child, and had even rowed across to the Manupirua hotpools – only accessible by boat – many years ago. They haven’t changed and I think they had the same paint job, but that doesn’t matter. They are just as endearingly basic as ever, with hot water coming through the earth, running through the concrete pools, and out onto the sandy lake beach below.

The slide into the so-called "biggest plunge pool in New Zealand" i.e. Lake Rotoiti!

A visit to Rotorua certainly is the perfect opportunity to find yourself up to your neck in hot water.

If you don’t find yourself on the shores of Lake Rotoiti, or prefer a far more civilised approach to thermalising and wouldn’t kick a spa treatment out of bed, then the top 10 world-rated Polynesian Spa is the ticket for you.

The spa, located adjacent to Lake Rotorua in the midst of town, is a luxurious experience of hot mineral pools and spa and massage therapies. I particularly liked how it combined the hotel-like luxury inside, with a completely natural looking landscaped pool area outside, in the Lake Spa. These are the best pools, priced at a higher $42 each but there are cheaper options around the $20-mark, with an amazing total of 26 hot mineral pools.

You will remember reading about Hamilton brand Geoskincare before on Thread.co.nz a few times before. I was rapt to be able to book a Geoskincare facial at Polynesian Spa, as I thought it was the perfect tie-in; Geoskincare, appropriately for Rotorua, uses ‘beauty mineral’ geothermal silica as a base for its natural products. My facialist Bonnie was amazing and I heartily recommend her. I was doubly treated when I saw the beautiful scenic view that the spa treatment rooms boast.

Below: The spa. Images supplied.

Lake Spa comprises four shallow rock pools of varying temperatures (36-43C), set in a naturally landscaped bush setting.

One can choose from a variety of body massages and facials, both 30 minute and 60 minute in length, as well as hydro therapies, with 13 therapists and 10 spa treatment rooms on offer.

Day 3 – Sunday

After another hearty bereakfast at the hotel – should have packed elastic waist jeans for this trip with all this eating – we head off to for a guided tour and Ingo (Beer, Bubbles and Mussels) at Te Puia in Hemo Road.

Our tour began at the impressive Te Puia entrance Te Heketanga-a-Rangi. This space comprises twelve monumental carvings reaching skyward, each one representing a Maori deity.

Below: The Maori wood carving workshop.

I have to give special mention of our amazing guide Carla who has guided for 24 years and knows the answer to every little question you ask. She is a deft hand at making flax skirts, too.

She said that now the rugby World Cup is on, most tourists get to Te Puia and want to do the Haka.

As well as cultural exhibits, nature has its own show. Te Whakarewarewa Valley has geothermal features dating back 40,000 years.

Amidst 500 pools and 65 geysers vents, of which seven are active, the stunning Pohutu Geyser takes centre stage. Meaning big splash or explosion, Pohutu has regular eruptions that reach skyward of up to 30 metres.

The white basilica below gives an insight on a much smaller scale of what the famous hidden terraces would have been like.

We travel to our geyser-cooked meal by means of the ‘waka’ but this is no canoe, it’s a long cart that is perfect for wet weather, children, elderly and tour groups to get around. Apparently they’ve had comments of it making the park a Maori Disneyland but I have to say those critics would be the first to appreciate the carts come rainy weather! And as a parent it was ideal. You would want to keep a rein – literally, if not metaphorically – on toddlers here as the mud pools are obviously very hot so perhaps take them strapped into a buggy.

Time for some food. But with a difference – food cooked in flax kits lowered into Ngararatuatara cooking pool, timed carefully, then pulled out by the cook. We ate a range of traditional and indigenous inspired foods; whole prawns, mussels, eggs, kumara, and corn on the cob, along with indigenous relishes and oils infused with native herbs with a selection of Maori breads for dipping.

Hot potato. Flax kete filled with kumara and boiled eggs. It tasted smoky, rather than sulphery.

I have to say, this next venue was my most-anticipated event on the itinerary, after having read about it for years. Treetops Lodge & Wilderness Estate (351 Kearoa Rd, Horohoro, RD1, Rotorua) is an ultra-luxurious lodge but not a place where one puts on airs and graces; in fact they haven’t got a suit-and-tie dresscode, rather, a very relaxed, friendly vibe.

If you love nature, you are guaranteed to feel right at home here. The name Treetops is a fitting one, as the lodge is nestled amongst 2500 acres of native forest. In fact I was told that viewing it on Google Earth you can hardly make it out, so small is its footprint on the native landscape. I love that.

Guests may choose to stay in the lodge in four suites off a communal lounge – perfect for family groups – or eight private villas, each with its own unique style, design and exquisite furnishings.

The property features seven trout streams, four lakes, more than 70km of hiking, mountain biking and horse riding trails as well as the spectacular Bridal Veil Falls and wildlife such as deer and water buffalo. You can shoot deer – the water buffalo are pets!

Fancy something to do in between meals? How about trout fishing, golfing, wine tasting and 4WD safaris. What to stay indoors? How about a cooking course, a massage treatment or some quiet reading in the Scottish castle-esque library.

The Treetops main hall was my favourite place and perhaps the coolest building I have ever seen in New Zealand. The massive wooden beams with carved detailing were all sourced on the property, and the high metal doors have a landscape in relief, that reminded me of the picture doors on Italian cathedrals.

Wondering how to redecorate your dining room? How about four mountain goats?

After coffees in from the rain, we drove down to the valley to watch the hangi – native Maori cooking in a pit over hot rocks – be brought up.

I felt completely spoilt as Chef told us he was up since 5 am laying the hangi in the food pit. I felt better when I learned his early start would mean an early finish in time to catch the Rugby quarter finals.

Below: Digging up the hangi.

They went fly fishing and caught this trout especially for the meal, and had wild boar that had been caught last week, as well as a quail.

Chef Todd prepares the food in the open plan kitchen which he says is great for interacting with the guests. There’s a chef’s table right up at teh bar, too so you can see all the action.

Chef gave us a guided tour of the lodge, including the billiards room, meeting room, wet room, and library – popular for romantic fire-side dinners for honeymooners.

We relaxed in front of a roaring fire while it rained outside.

Rotorua, goodbye. Hope we see you again soon.

Megan Robinson 11 October 2011
Photography by Kevin Robinson


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