While Rotorua is known for being the adventure capital of north island, we also knew their sulphuric thermal springs were quite the crowd pleaser. Rotorua has multiple parks where you can see a ton of picturesque, underground boiling pools and after narrowing down our choices, we ended up going with Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland.

The entrance leads you to a gift shop and a cafe stocked to the brim with coffee, pastries and sandwiches. After a quick bite to eat, we bought our tickets and proceed to the trail.

The route took us to about 32 thermal pools. Here are a few of the parks highlights:

Artist’s Palette

Overlooking the entire landscape before the next attraction below, you can really see the exquisite, vivid colors from this vantage point.

Champagne Pool

The champagne pool absolutely steals the show. You cross an Insta-worthy bridge through the middle of the scene, and you’ll soon see a multi-faceted pool, glittering under the sun; it was my favorite spot of the park.

Mud Pools

These boiling vats are quite common throughout the park.

Devil’s Bath

One of the last pools prove that nature is truly mind blowing. A blend of minerals give the water that vibrant, lime green color, and yes, it looks as bright in real lifeas it does in pictures!

The thermal park was a great way to spend a couple of hours. While the first few sulphuric craters and mud pools were eye catching, after a while a lot of the similar attractions were a tad lackluster, and a quick once-over would be sufficient for many of them. The above highlights though were quite worth the admission price; the park was one of Jarden’s favorite places from our entire trip!

For more information about Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, click here.

Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland
201 Waiotapu Loop Road, RD 3
Rotorua 3073, NZ
+64 7 366 6333