Rotorua – Geysers and Hobbits – 4 Nights

Arrive in Rotorua and transfer to your hotel with the rest of the day at leisure.
Accommodation: Rotorua for 4 nights

Experience the real Middle-earth with a visit to the Hobbiton Movie Set, the bucolic setting for The Shire that featured in the Peter Jackson directed films, The Lord of the Rings. Your tour starts with a drive through the picturesque 1,250 acre sheep farm with spectacular views across to the Kaimai Ranges. Your guide will escort you through the ten acre site recounting fascinating details of how the Hobbiton set was created. The Hobbit holes, Green Dragon Inn, Mill and other structures created for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films can be viewed and you will see how this beautiful piece of Waikato farmland was transformed into The Shire from Middle-earth. Upon completion of your tour of the set you will return to The Shires Rest, before returning to Rotorua.

Today is at leisure to explore Rotorua before your evening Hangi Concert and Dinner – Te Po is Te Puia’s evening cultural experience. It is a feast of cultural storytelling, entertainment and Maori kai (indigenous food). Feel the spirit of Te Puia at night and experience the Maori heritage – a living legacy of people, culture and place.

This morning, you will visit Rotorua’s most natural and popular geothermal parks: Wai O Tapu, Waimangu Volcanic Valley, Rainbow Mt and boiling mudfields. You will see volcanoes, geysers, New Zealand’s largest boiling mud pool, and hot springs on a scenic drive around volcanic landscapes of farmland, native and exotic forests. The two heritage parks offer a variety of thermal activity; at Wai-o-tapu the amazingly colorful hot springs and moonlike landscapes are the key features along with the famous Lady Know geyser. At Waimangu Volcanic valley the guide will explain the Mt Tarawera eruption, native flora and fauna and the geothermal features which were blown open in 1886.
In the afternoon, you will take a take a journey with a local guide in the footprints of the Maori tribe “Tuhourangi “. You will learn about the history of the eighth wonder of the world, the pink and white terraces and the great 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera that destroyed both the tribal village and the terraces. See where local Maori live now today in the thermal village of Whakarewarewa after being displaced by the Tarawera eruption. You can purchase food cooked in the thermal waters and see the Pohutu geyser erupt. Boiling mud and thermal springs are on the guided walk through the living arts and crafts Maori village. Then, we will take a scenic drive to the Blue and Green Lakes lookout and visit the Buried Village which is the former tribal lands of the Tuhourangi people. The tour includes a beautiful native bush walk to a waterfall and Lake Tarawera lookouts.

At leisure until your transfer to the airport.