• Background & Quick Facts

    Background & Quick Facts

Our Background

About Waimangu Volcanic Valley

Created following the Mount Tarawera eruption in 1886, Waimangu Volcanic Valley is an eco-tourism experience featuring spectacular volcanic craters, enormous hot water springs, beautiful geothermal features, rare and unusual plant life, brilliantly coloured microbiology and a wide array of birds.

Amongst its many highlights is Lake Rotomahana, formerly home to the ‘eighth natural wonder of the world’ – the Pink and White Terraces, which were buried in the eruption.

Today, Waimangu welcomes visitors to explore its unique geothermal system on foot, or by boat, to discover its 22 volcanic craters, one of the world’s largest hot water springs and the site of the Pink and White Terraces.

Waimangu is owned by a partnership between Tūhourangi Tribal Authority and Te Puia NZMACI Limited Partnership.

  • We had a great trip here - very organised walk with lots of information and fascinating views of the craters. The boat trip on the lake was very relaxing and timed to allow us to catch the bus back up. We had a good lunch back at the…

    Penny
    Brisbane, Australia

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  • As a geothermal geologist I have visited all the commercial geothermal tourist sites. Waimangu is my favourite. It has a beautiful natural setting walking down thru forests with a bus return uphill. Along the way there is steaming lakes, bubbling sulfurous hot water vents, mini geysers and waterfalls and some nice silica sinter…

    David H
    My favourite geothermal site in NZ New Zealand

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  • We had a beautiful morning here. I love the sulphuric smell & the geothermal wonders. Volcanic activity is always interesting. The walk is perfect &…

    Karen
    Paddington, Australia

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  • Can’t recommend this highly enough. Our family of two adults and a 7, 10 and 11 year old absolutely loved it. The walk through the valley was gorgeous. The self guided map tour was awesome, our kids took turns reading the info at each spot. It was perfectly planned out with the walk down (we used the full two hours and had to power walk the last 15 minutes to make the boat), followed by the boat trip and then a ride back up to the top. The…

    Charlie
    New Zealand

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  • A peaceful quiet walk in the rain. We came here on a rainy day, as there wasn’t much else to do outside when in rains in Rotorua. Staff was nice and walked us through the bus stops and how everything worked there. We paid the additional $5 to rent a heat thermometer gun (not sure was the actual name of it is). It was cool to see how hot the water was getting with the temperature gauge. This was a good place to go when it rains. The walkway is…

    Spring
    Texas

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  • So impressive and wonderful to tramp through...fantastic vapor whirls on the magnificent colorful lakes...great ferns with thousands of different shades of green.....amazing viewpoints to look down into the valley...awesome hues of ever changing volcanic terraces in different lights of the day....a great bus service for weary people or elderly ones to appreciate this veritable gem of…

    Thomas Rhöse
    Google Review

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