1. Waka Taua (vessel for the conveyance of a war party)
Waka Taua was built in 1989 using native Totara wood. The vessel was named “Te Arawa”, after the village of its carver. It is 20m long and weighs 2.5 tons and was constructed by hand using traditional methods.
2. Government Gardens
This historic area was gifted in 1880 by the original Maori owners – Ngati Whakaue. The immaculate gardens we are entering were once part of a swampy, scrub-covered wilderness, complete with steaming pools and mud. The earth’s crust is particularly thin in this area; reminders of the underground volcanic activity are all around you.
3. Te Arawa Soldiers Memorial and Krupp’s Gun
This distinctive memorial was erected to commemorate the sons of the Te Arawa people who fought and died in WWI. The Krupp’s Gun was associated with the Pioneer Battalion of Maori soldiers in France during WWI.
4. Sulphur Bay
Sulphur Bay, a 145 hectare wildlife refuge, sits in the south eastern corner of the volcanically formed LakeRotorua. Sulphur Point, is the small headland protruding into the bay and has a Wildlife Sanctuary Protection status - the highest status of wildlife protection. There are 63 bird species in the area - 45 are native and 24 are water dependant. Warmth, refuge and proximity of food are the most likely reasons birds gather in such large numbers. Birds found include: black and red-billed gulls, pied stilts, spur-winged plovers, NZ dabchick, shags, swallows, pukeko, black swans, mallard, herons and the threatened banded dotterel. A stream flowing into the bay features geothermal activity at its mouth; the origin of the warmth and murky sulphurous waters.
5. Lake Rotorua
The name Rotorua derives from the Maori language: Roto means lake and rua means two. Literally translated Rotorua means ‘second lake’. It was named by Maori chief Ihenga, as it was the second major lake he discovered while exploring the area. Lake Rotorua is circular: 10 kms in diameter, 915 feet above sea level with an average depth of about 15ft. The lake is a shallow basin that slumped after volcanic activity emptied its magma chamber beneath. Formed some 100,000 years ago, it is the largest of 19, situated to the north-east of the city.
6. The Bird Perch
This popular bird perch is home to many black shags.
7. Te Arawa People
In about 1340AD Arawa canoes arrived at the coast at Maketu. A century later Ihenga (a grandson of the Chief of the Arawa Canoe) discovered the area and claimed it for their descendants as their “place of belonging”. They settled on the edge of Lake Rotorua at Ohinemutu where they used hot pools for cooking, bathing and warmth.
8. Mokoia Island
This Famous island is the ancestral home of the Te Arawa people. During ancient warfare an important chief was killed by being struck in the face with a sharp digging stick (ko) which disfigured his moko (facial tattoo). Mokoia is a play on the word moko and ko. The island is now a bird sanctuary.
9. Hinemoa
The daughter of two great people: Te Umukaria and his wife Hinemaru. She was sacred and lived in a special house on the eastern shore, with female attendants.
10. Tutanekai
The son of a chief, Tutankai lived many generations ago on Mokoia Island.
11. The Blue Baths
This immaculately restored historic building was among the first public swimming pools in the world to offer mixed bathing. Built as part of a tourism initiative by the New Zealand Government, the Mediterranean style complex was opened in stages from 1931 to 1933. The Blue baths closed on May 2, 1982 and lay untouched until restored and reopened in 1999.
12. Whangapipiro (also known as Rachael’s Spring)
Water from this boiling cauldron is alkaline and reached 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Silica-laden water from here was originally piped to the pavilion Bath and is still reticulated to the modern Polynesian Spa. Whangapipiro was renamed ‘Rachel’s Pool’, a notorious English Cosmetician who promised youthful complexions, from the softening effects of silica water on the skin.
13. The Bath House (Rotorua Museum)
The Bath House opened in 1908 and is the only surviving building from the first 45 years of the Rotorua Spa. The building represents New Zealand’s Government’s first major investment in the tourism industry and is readily recognised as an iconic symbol of Rotorua city.
14. The Princes Gate Archway
The Prince’s Gate archway represents a Crown and was erected in honour of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York’s visit in 1901. It was built of Totara and for the royal visit, decorated with greenery and illuminated with electric lights.
15. The Duck
The vehicle that you are traveling on is a WWII amphibious Landing Craft. During the war 22,000 of these were manufactured to offload supplies from ship to shore. Used extensively during the successful Normandy Invasion, there are only 900 left today. Today, whilst rare and usually requiring extensive restoration, they are increasingly used as tour vehicles to bring fun.
16. The Redwoods (Te Whakarewarewa)
In 1901, 170 different tree species were planted here to ascertain which would be the most sustainable in our very geothermal pumice soil. Of the 170 different species about a third remain. The redwoods are used extensively now for recreational activities such as walking and mountain bike riding.
17. The Blue Lake (Lake Tikitapu)
The Blue Lake is one of the most recreational Lakes in the area and is very popular with both waterskiing and swimming.
18. Green Lake (Lake Rotokakahi)
This is the areas most sacred Lake and only members of the Tuhourangi tribe have access to it. The princess Hinemoa is buried on the island at the middle of the lake. The lake was known for its Kakahi, a delicious shellfish found on the lake’s sandy bed. Rotokakahi means lake of shellfish Kakahi.
19. Lake Okareka
Okareka means sweet food. In the days of old, they use to grow the sweet potatoes or Kumara around the outside of the lake. The lake is now a very popular recreational resource and residential area.
20. Mount Tarawera (The mountain that exploded in 1886)
In the early hours of the morning of June 10th 1886, Tarawera Mountain erupted. Columns reached thousands of metres into the sky.
