Boutique Rotorua Day from Tauranga: the Native Bush Walk That Beats the Redwoods

4 Salisbury Ave, Mount Maunganui

Straight outside the port security gate there is a grassy knoll with flagpoles. The guide waits there, in a black short-sleeved collared shirt.

Mt Maunganui Main Beach

A stop at the beach the operator rates the best in New Zealand, and the story of Cook naming this coast the Bay of Plenty.

Te Puke

One of the original kiwifruit orchards at Te Puke, the kiwifruit growing capital of the world. The vines carry more fruit than most people expect, and the amount of husbandry behind that shows: this crop is a serious part of the local economy.

We head to Rotorua via a beautifully scenic route with…

The road to Rotorua runs down off the elevated central plateau, past native fauna of the region and with the Pacific in view along the way.

Visit this once-bustling settlement on the shores of Lake…

A once-busy settlement on the shore of Lake Rotorua: steaming pools between the buildings, and the old church where Prince William and Catherine were formally welcomed. Admission is by donation.

Government Gardens

The Government Gardens, Rachel's Pool and the Blue Baths.

Kuirau Park

A foot soak in Rotorua's mineral water, with steaming pools and gardens around it.

Lake Rotorua

Lunch at one of three cafés in downtown Rotorua, all with decent food and somewhere to sit properly for a while.

Costo extra

Tikitapu Nature Walk

A rainforest that starts at the roadside: ferns of every kind, tall native trees, and native birds audible through it. This is close to what Māori walking the country, and the first colonists, would have moved through before most of the forest was cleared for pasture. The operator surveys customers at the end of each tour, and this walk is the stop named most often as the highlight, ahead of the Redwood forest that is also on the route.

Lake Tarawera

Past the Blue and Green lakes to the view over Lake Tarawera with the mountain behind it. On a clear day it is the best photograph of the trip. The guide covers the 1886 eruption here: the ground it wrecked, the more than a hundred people it killed, and the Pink and White Terraces it buried.

Titokorangi Redwoods isite Visitor Information Centre (Rotorua)

The redwood forest planted in the early 1900s, which the climate here has grown fast and tall. There may not be time for it on the day, but the stop in a grove of native New Zealand forest is always included.

Okere Falls

Time and fitness permitting, the guide takes you down steep stairs, often wet, to the Kaituna River where it forces through the gully. There may be rafts coming down it.

Wai-O-Tapu

Also subject to time: 25 minutes' drive to the middle of the North Island and the boiling mud pools of the Taupo Volcanic Zone. The site is 20 m from the parking, with another 100 m of walking around the pool for anyone who wants it.