New Zealand: Te Puia, the home to Pōhutu

We were in Rotorua where there are ample of geothermal activities, so naturally we wanted to see a geyser. We decided on Te Puia because (1) geyser and (2) Kiwi bird. Haha.

There are a few different types of entrance tickets on offer but as we already went to Mitai Māori Village, we got Te Rā (Day Pass). Ticket for single adult costs NZ$ 48.60 at the time of our visit. We bought our tickets from Rotorua I-Site Centre, I remember there were a small discount but we paid NZ$ 48.60 (which matches the current price online). The website did mention of a slight increase after September 2018 so it could've been a price increase when we were there too.

Note point (1) and (2) above. Photography is not allowed on the Kiwi bird because Kiwi is a noctural bird and endangered birds. To compensate, I ended up with a few hundreds photos of (1), like this. Haha

Pōhutu (pronounced as 'poor-hoo-too') means 'constant splashing' in Māori . It is the largest active geyser in the southern hemisphere and it 'lives' in Te Puia. Pōhutu did put up a very spectacular show, so naturally I ended up with so many photos. On top of that, there are actually 5 geysers at this Whakarewarewa Geyser Terrace.

In fact the geyser next to Pōhutu, Te Tohu erupts before and after Pōhutu, so we were treated to a fairly long eruption. It was fairly dry with no rain during our visits, so the mud pools were pretty quite. There were only very minimal bubbling effect. After utilising the burst mode, I only managed to the pitiful 2 drops of 'jumping' mud. Haha...

See left of photo, I promise the 2 pathetic drops of mud were 'in the air' and not some cracks.. lol

After that, we went around to looking at Māori architectures before lunching.

As Te Puia is pretty much a Māori village, there was option of hāngi meal.

As we already had hāngi meal from the day before, we went for other options. I shared my meal with MMC so we get to try more food. The food was pretty good, despite being a tourist spot.

Beef mince and cheese pie + carrot cake

Angus beef burger

Our last stop of the day at Te Puia and Rotorua was at their souvenir shop. It was a fairly big one too. Everybody bought something! Ahem... Hobbiton's souvenir shop could learn something here.. hahaha.. 


Side note: Short week again next week! ^^