Thanks Neil for an amazing day showing us around Rotorua. Hobbiton movie set and Waimangu Valley was just magic. Looking forward to coming back and trying your other tours on offer.

Thanks Neil for an amazing day showing us around Rotorua. Hobbiton movie set and Waimangu Valley was just magic. Looking forward to coming back and trying your other tours on offer.

The area was amazing. I had enough time to walk the whole way to the lake and back. While waiting for the bus I found out that there was a free shuttle there and back.. Which would have saved me £20 ($40). It was a 13 minute drive and I had a car. Very poor show on their part. I highly recommend you buy a ticket directly and use their free shuttle. It's worth going but not worth the rip off travel.

We chose this over Wai-O-Tapu as everyone at our accommodation said it was a more natural experience...and they were right! Although the path for the walk is well cared for and safe. The surrounding bush and thermal features are untouched and there is lot to see with many info boards at each point. The complete walk to the lake is around 4.5k (more if you detour up to the top crater) Well worth doing as it was very quiet when we were there and we saw hardly a soul as most people seem to just get on the bus to the lake! The boat trip was also great as you get to see some geysers etc which are not visible on the walk. Alan our boat captain was a mine of information, full of facts and figures about the park and the entire volcanic area around. He was cheerful and amusing and entirely fascinating. It's not cheap to go here, but we find a lot of New Zealand to be so and this is one trip worth paying for

We did the all-day visit to Waimangu, and it was well worth the time. It's a spectacular park with hot springs, vents, geysers and amazing pools everywhere you go. We also saw lots of native plants and birds, as well as not-so-native - a whole flock of black swans on the lake. We went on a day that was pouring rain in the middle of winter, but it was still beautiful (and they have umbrellas to borrow). We didn't do the boat trip because of the rain but on a nice day we would have added that.