Experience Maori Tradition at
Whakarewarewa Thermal Village Rotorua New Zealand

Situated an easy 3 hour drive or short flight from Auckland in the North Island NZ city of Rotorua is a living history museum that offers up-close and personal insight into Maori people and their dance, symbols, weapons, and other traditions.

Blended into tasteful tourism, Whakarewarewa Thermal Village features real Polynesian community life amidst a mystical hot springs atmosphere of spouting geysers, brilliant hued thermal mineral pools and boiling mud to those seeking an authentic tour experience in New Zealand.

Helpful backpacking hostels (such as Funky Green Voyager), as well as any other Rotorua resort, hotel, or motel accommodation are quick to recommend the village experience along with other tourism highlights such as Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland and its Lady Knox Geyser, New Zealand Spa Aix Massage and various other spa pools and spa luxury, and famous NZ glowworm caves.

Whakarewarewa Thermal Village is a virtual paradise valley of culture in a real life setting with interactive opportunities to learn Maori language, music, and history, and take courses in traditional basket weaving or “waiata-a-ringa” action songs.

The best way to experience Whakarewarewa Thermal Village is through a guided tour. This begins with an explanation of village lifestyle and how this particular Maori tribe has lived in harmony with their unique geothermal wonderland environment for 200 years. Villagers demonstrate how geothermal activity is used in daily cooking and bathing and also share interpretations of culture, history, and legends passed down through generations.

As this is a real life community, your visit may coincide with weddings, funerals, or tribal gatherings. The Whare Tupuna ancestral house with its ornate carvings is considered the heart of the village and holds great genealogical, historical, and cultural significance.

Whakarewarewa’s geothermal features bear significance to village life with such importance that each pool, geyser, and fumarole bears a specific tribal or historical name. The tour includes thermal walks and up-close encounters with these natural wonders. Visitor participation and educational activities, such as firsthand observation of preschool children speaking in their native Maori tongue, further enrich the tour.

No New Zealand vacation visit to Whakarewarewa Thermal Village is complete without hangi, the traditional Maori meal which means “food cooked in the ground or an earth oven.” Classic in-ground pit preparation takes a slight departure in the village version by utilizing newly created vents of geothermal activity. Food is essential steamed for 3 to 7 hours.

A hangi meal might include chicken, corned beef, potato, sweet potato, pumpkin, carrots, bread stuffing, cabbage, corn on the cob. For dessert there’s steamed pudding, fruit salad, cream and custard. Reservations are required to experience this New Zealand food and drink tradition at Whakarewarewa Thermal Village. An alternative for the curious but smaller appetite is to sample corn on the cob prepared in the Parekohuru cooking pool.

Your Whakarewarewa experience is certain to leave you satiated, both physically and mentally, with rich Maori village tradition.