Rainbow Springs Nature Park and Mitai Maori Village

The next morning in Rotorua, my friends and I went to visit the Rainbow Springs Nature Park. Once we stepped inside the park, we experienced a refreshing and relaxing background originated by the existed ecology. It’s a laid-back experience to find ourselves bounded with natural surroundings; native bush, crystal clear waterfalls, fern-fringed pools and many more… 

A relaxing ecology

We’re given the chance to sightsee many protected species. For example, the kea, the kaka and tuatara.

Since the tickets we bought are valid for day and night tours, we revisit the park at night for a different experience. Rainbow Springs has colourful lighting effects added and made it a unique tour at night. By night, we walked through an open-air area to watch the Brown Kiwi. In fact, it’s my first time looked at live kiwi throughout my visiting in New Zealand. I was excited indeed to get so close with them!

Rainbow Springs Nature Park

Location: Fairy Springs Road, Rotorua.
Tel: (07) 350 0440
Website: www.rainbowsprings.co.nz
Opening hours: 8am – late, everyday


In my opinion, Rotorua is the best place to explore Maori culture and a tour to the village is a must. In fact, there’re few different village tours promoted around but we finally chose the Mitai recommended by the people in the hostel we stayed. Anyway, we prepared to be at the site in the evening. We’re brought to the actual Maori village location in natural bush.

Statue in the Maori village

Visitors were watching the Warriors Canoe performance

In the village, the performers presented the Maori cultural experience and the warriors paddling in a canoe was one of the best performances we had seen. All audiences were entertained with the legends, native songs and dances before a feast started.

Then, we’re invited to enjoy the famous Hangi, a traditionally cooked meals using heated rocks by Maori. The meal served in a buffet style mainly consisted of plain chickens, potatoes, kumara and some other vegetables yet the taste was really good and it’s a new experience to us.

Hangi meal preparation

The ready Maori meal

 The meal was enjoyed under a canopy

We’re brought for a bushwalk, Fairy Spring and glowworm sightseeing tour in the Rainbow Springs after the dinner.


Mitai Maori Village

Location: 196 Fairy Spring Road, Rotorua. (next to Rainbow Springs)
Tel: (07) 343 9132
Website: www.mitai.co.nz

Agrodome

The first tour we joined in Rotorua was the entertaining Agrodrome Sheep Show. It’s an hour live performance highlighting 19 champion rams by a presenter, followed by a sheep shearing demonstration, a sheep auction and huntaway dogs on stage.

Sheep shearing by the presenter

The sheep & dog presented on the stage

At the end of the show, children were invited up to the stage and had fun in baby lamb feeding. The most humorous part of the show we witnessed was the cow milking by audience, they're taught the gesture of milking in a funny way.

Cow milking on stage by one of the audience

  
When the sheep show came to an end, we popped round the Woollen Mill and Wool ‘n’ Crafts buildings. We had an educated tour on the wool industry of New Zealand in older days. Some of the displays included a wool carding machine, homespun and knitted woven garments.

Agrodome is sited on a great land. Except the buildings we visited, there’re other areas at the park available for visitors to explore. Agrodome Organic Farm Tour is also an interesting paid tour that visitors may possibly join. A shearing shed room, souvenir shop and farmview café are also part of the park. Interestingly, Agrodome also offers some attractions for adventurers such as ZORB spherical challenge (the one my friend tried it) and many more. The site is absolutely a place to stay longer!     

ZORB adventure

Agrodome

Location: Western Road, Ngongotaha, Rotorua.

Tel: (07) 3571050

Opening hours: 8.30am – 5.00pm daily

Website: www.agrodome.co.nz

Driving direction from Rotorua city: take State Highway 5 towards Hamilton and take a right turn into Western Road.

Rotorua, A Trip on Christmas

Rotorua is well known for its tourism activity. If you come to Rotorua, you shouldn't be bored as there're many attractions and places you can visit. Together with two friends, I went to visit Rotorua on the day leaving Te Puke on Christmas and we spent a few days there. Same as Te Puke, Rotorua is sited in the Bay of Plenty region too.

There’re a number of remarkable buildings sited in the heart of Rotorua, Rotorua I-Site Visitor Centre, Old Post Office and The Bath House (Rotorua Museum of Art and History) to name a few. They’re some of the great sites for photography.

I-Site Information Centre

Old Post Offcice
  

Museum of Art & History

Situated at Queens Drive, the Museum of Art and History was built with its astonishing garden landscape, the Government Gardens. The urban park is closed to the lakeshore and it offers thousands of flowers and plants for visitors to enjoy.

The city is surrounded with many lakes that formed the Lakes of Rotorua. Other than sightseeing the historic buildings and gardens, we visited the lakefront too on one evening. It’s definitely a destination for an eco-walk. Try to keep quiet for the time being and you’ll be astounded by the atmosphere and the sounds created by the nature.

Rotorua is distinctive with its geothermal nature, such as the hot thermal springs and mud pools. So it's a place worth your attention while you're here. You could visit free at the informal Kuirau Park which is next to the city centre. The park enables you to see the bubbling geothermal pools, steaming lakes and some garden areas. You’ll  find the ‘rotten eggs’ odour around the area due to the release of hydrogen sulphide.

A steaming lake

Most of the active geothermal areas were fenced for visitors safety 

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A small bubbling geothermal pool

The water of the pool is bubbling and extremely hot 

A small mud pool

A mud pool was bubbling & steaming 

Kuirau Park

Location: Ranolf Street, Rotorua 3201.

We had witnessed a great influence of Maori culture in the Ohinemutu Village. The Maori village was an important hub in the past but now it becomes one of the suburbs of Rotorua city.  



Panorama at the village with lake and mountain background 

The cementary area in the village

The peaceful cementary area

From the village, the Maori arts can be viewed through the details of the architecture and the most prominent building is the Maori Meeting House.

Maori Meeting House

The interior of meeting house was designed with intricate carving and shiny paua shells. Today, the building is still important to the local Maori community.

 

Besides the public settings, we also paid a visit to some charged tours such as the Agrodome, Rainbow Spring and Tamaki Maori Village. I’ll share them on my coming posts, so stay tune!

A Visit in Tirau and Otorohanga, Waikato

One of the trips we made from Opotiki was a day tour to Tirau followed by Otorohanga in Waikato region.

Located 50km from Hamilton and 80 km from Otorohanga, Tirau is a small township with population under a thousand residents. Surprisingly, most shops in the town were designed with cast-off corrugated iron. Perhaps the most remarkable symbolic buildings we had seen at there are the gigantic dog shaped I-site and the wool outlet with huge sheep design. The distinctive feature is an attraction of the town to invite visitors. By the way, fans of arts and creativity shouldn’t miss a look in Tirau.

Information centre created with corrugated iron in dog shape



Another giant sheep building made with corrugated iron

The Honey Shop also used the waste corrugated material to make a big bee sign

Corrugated 'good shepherd' sculpture



We drove about an hour from Tirau and we reached Otorohanga. It’s a fact that Otorohanga is known as the New Zealand's Kiwiana Town. Interestingly, the rural town was decorated with suspended kiwiana icons along the main street.

Furthermore, it’s notable for the Kiwi House as well as the Native Bird Park. We had a walk around the town including parks, shops and the district library.



A recreational Rotary Park

 

Statue of 2 sisters, Parehuia & Kahira, nearby the Kiwi House

Otorohanga district library

Happily, we tried the ‘chicken n chips’ in a takeaway shop and I bought some iconic souvenirs before we left the lovely town.