Tauranga, New Zealand 9:00 AM-7:45 PM

Tauranga, New Zealand 9:00 AM-7:45 PM

What sights and/or shore excursions do you recommend?

About an hours drive south is the thermal region. We went to Whakarewara and there is a Maori cultural village/centre there as well.

Rotorua itself is pretty, but there's a strong sulphur smell here from the volcanic steam.

Again we hired a car here and drove to the Blue lake, then the buried village

http://www.buriedvillage.co.nz/

The onto http://www.whakarewarewa.com/ mentioned above, this is run by the locals and you can see their dancing crafts, hot mud pools and the gyser.

We wished we had left enough time to visit the local town of Tauranga but there is so much to see here...next time.

If you have adventurous, young people, then longridge park may be the go.

http://www.longridgepark.co.nz/

We went with Carlton Tours, into Rotorua etc. I have mentioned this on another current thread...but had a fantastic day, highly recommend them, and good value.

Jen

I agree with Kaseyoz - hire a car. Driving is easy and compared to Australia very sedate and unhurried. Very easy to rent a car for pick up from this port. You can arrange it all by email before you go and the car is waiting there on the wharf - paper work all prepared. Just fill up on the way back and drop it off also on the wharf - no hassling around trying to find the office. We did a similar day - thermal park, lunch and the buried village - there was lots more we could have done. With a car we were not being called back to the bus or waiting for others caught up in retail therapy. We used a company called Rite Price. Hope it is OK to mention their name - there were other companies apparently offering similar services. Our lot were friendly and efficient. Make sure you check the pick up and drop off points before you commit and get verification ny email.

Tauranga is the port for visiting Rotorua. For overseas visitors , its a must to see if its going to be your only time in NZ.

As others have said above , the best thing would be to book a private tour. They have their own pick up area right on the pier and if you go in a small group you beat the crowds and have the option of stopping wherever you want for photo ops.