Waimangu Volcanic Valley: A Natural Geothermal Valley

This year we came to Mount Maunganui for our summer holidays and took the opportunity to spend an afternoon visiting the Waimangu Valley tourist attraction. I have visited this geothermal area two or three times before and it has always been such an enjoyable experience.

Location: 587 Waimangu Road, Rotorua 3073, NZ

More info: Waimangu Volcanic Valley

Our ticket: Full Waimangu Experience, this included walk and boat cruise.

Download the app: Waimangu App

This place has everything- beautiful walk amongst lush native bush, bubbling hot springs, craters, sulphur rocks, a boat cruise across Lake Rotomahana to see the active geyser. Finally a bus will bring you back up the hill to the local store and café near where your car is parked.

The valley is located 14km to the south of Rotorua. There is a shuttle from town or if you are driving it is just 25 mins from Rotorua. For us it was 1½ hours drive from Mount Maunganui. We decided to head over after lunch and arrived at Waimangu around 1 o’clock.

We should have booked online but luckily there wasn’t a problem getting tickets. With map in hand we were off on a lovely 4km walk all the way downhill through native bush and passing hot springs, hot waterfalls and sulphur rocks along the way until we arrived ultimately at the lake. The terrain is easy and the trail includes gravel pathways, steps and bridges.

While wandering around, taking photos of hot bubbly pools, listening to frogs, etc, we struck up a conversation with Manfred from Germany who was enjoying his NZ holiday experience. It was lovely to meet a young person from overseas and gain some insight into how he perceives NZ which made us think… we have some pretty stunning outdoor scenery and activities here in NZ. We wish you well on your trip Manfred, thanks for chatting to an old couple and sharing the boat cruise with us, and we hope to run into you again sometime soon.

The 45 min boat cruise at the end of the walk takes you around the lake, directly over the spot where the Pink and White Terraces were located, to the other side of the lake where an active geyser is in full display mode every 23 mins… the skipper has the timing down pat and will position the boat just exactly where you need to be to get the best photo or video.

When you come back to the wharf a bus is waiting to take you back up to the top. It was a perfect day and well worth a visit.