Free Geothermal Park in Rotorua – Day 290, Part 2

So we are not leaving Rotorua without checking New Zealand’s best free thermal park.

Previously on Day 290 part 1 we went to Wingspan which is the National Birds of Prey Centre in New Zealand. it’s home to some of the rarest wildlife in the country and an amazing activity to do in Rotorua and for more awesome activities adventures in New Zealand make sure to hit the subscribe button to see more about 365 activities in 365 days.

After visiting Wingspan we are heading back toward the Planet Backpackers because we are checking out today. Don’t worry, we are staying in Rotorua we are just going to check into Base Backpackers which is one the other side of the town right in front of a massive free geothermal park and that’s where we’re gonna be heading out right after checking in.

That geothermal park is Kuirau Park, which I really hope I’m pronouncing right but that’s how I’m gonna pronounce it for the rest of this video and it is a free geothermal park right in the centre of Rotorua. It’s super easy to access and has loads of walking tracks around to some amazing geothermal features.

One of the main features here at Kuirau Park are all the bubbling mud pools and steaming lakes and the steam is so mesmerising to watch as it’s making all these patterns in the air but at the bubbling mud pools we see a little bit of a change.

It’s been raining a lot the last two days you guys saw that right so because of that the water right here is literally just water instead of mud.

I really like that the park is really wide open and then there is some small bushy areas. We can snoop onto the intricate of the earth. Oh look at this one.

Kuirau Park has really heaps of stuff to check out I mean listen to the list of actually attractions that you can see in this geothermal park. The bubbling mud pools, the silica terraces, the tiny spluttering geysers, the large steaming lake, the colourful rocks, the free thermal footbaths, the barbecue and picnic area table, the playgrounds the free wedding venue and even a food market every Saturday from 6am to 1pm.

That’s a bit of a weird list but that’s to tell you how much there is to check out right here and in front of us right now we have heaps of geothermal features it’s actually quite hard to actually fixate and watch one thing at a time because there is so much happening on every single little bit of areas.

Rotorua has quite a lot of really amazing geothermal parks and we actually went to one of the paid ones just the other day which we’ll link up to in the cards above as well as in the description below so you guys can check that one out as well, but the difference between kuirau park and the paid geothermal parks is the features here a lot smaller. There on a small scale, they’re not as grand or as colourful as the paid geothermal parks but this one is still pretty awesome to check around. And you know what, it’s free so why not?

The walkways around the park lead us to a few really awesome sculptures as well as my personal favourite feature of this park which is the huge steaming lake there’s boardwalks that go right into the middle of it and your sort of engulfed in this steam. This place is so epic.

While we’re in front of this mesmerizing lake we learn about the local Maori legend surrounding it in fact Kuirau Park was named after Kuiarau which was a young Maori woman that used to come here every day to bathe in the lake. one day a massive taniwha which is the maori work for monster grabbed her and dragged her at the bottom of the lake killing her in the same occasion. The Gods were really angry and wanted to punish the massive taniwha so they made the water boil to kill it and that’s why the lake is boiling since then.

I really love learning about all the Maori legends surrounding all the places that we visit It always gives them a really fun flair. But from there we are walking back toward the Base Backpackers which is our Base at the moment in Rotorua and we are heading to Lava Bar which is world famous for its Lava Jars which are full literally full of liquor we take three of them and Laura and I are gonna have a lovely night with ton of food, way too much alcohol and a tonne of party because Rotorua is not called Rotovegas for nothing. But turns out that it’s the middle of the week so we’ll have to wait a little longer to party so ice cream it is.

Yum! MM!

Ok, take it. I only pick one out of two.

Yeah.

Who is doing the best delivery that’s it you know. So you can do it just with a better delivery.

Well that won’t be hard cos yours was pretty poo. Ooo I’m scared of doing mine now.