Rotorua is known for its steaming hot pools and its adventurous experiences. The tourist office is super helpful and packed with brochures offering a range of activities from bungee jumping, zorbing, boat cruises and the luge! You can also discover more about Maori culture as Rotorua is full of it.
We camped in a car park near the government gardens (38°08'15.7"S 176°15'25.6"E). It was a really good central location, walkable distance to the museum and to town where there are shops, cafes and restaurants. We arrived around 2pm, parked the car and headed to
Kuirau Park. It's a free park and they have hot water pools which you can sit and put your feet in. It's also a cool place to look at all the geothermal activity.
The next day we drove to the Skyline Luge. There's free parking for camper vans. There are different options for tickets. You have to pay for a gondola ride up the mountain and then you can choose to have either 1, 3, 5 or 7 luge rides. We went for 5 and this cost us $66NZD.
It was honestly so much fun! I would do it again any day. 5 is a good amount of rides, you are definitely going to want to go on at least 3. There's also a viewing point and a restaurant up at the top and there are a few walking trails as well as a zipline and skyswing.
In the evening we headed to Redwoods. We made a beautiful gourmet bolognese for dinner in the car park and then went to do the Nightlights Treewalk. It cost $30NZD for both the day and night walks, unfortunately we didn't have enough time to do the walk in the day, but if you do have time it is definitely worth it! The walk took over an hour but we took our time, taking photos and just enjoying the beautiful light displays up in the trees! This activity is not one for those of you who are scared of heights because you walk along bridges that are located high up in the tree tops.
Redwoods is also a great place to visit if you're on a budget because they have loads of walking trails that you can do for free. I did one of these trails earlier in the year and it was beautiful.
