Sights in Taupo & The Central Plateau
- Sort by:
- Popular
-
A
Taupo Museum & Art Gallery
The Taupo Museum & Art Gallery has historical displays covering the local forestry, nautical and trout-fishing industries, a mock-up of a 19th-century shop and a moa skeleton. There are regular visiting art exhibitions, too. The centrepiece of the collection is a Maori meeting house, Te Aroha o Rongoheikume, adorned with elaborate carvings. Situated in a courtyard, the Ora Garden of Wellbeing is a re-creation of NZ’s gold-medal-winning entry into the 2004 Chelsea Flower Show. It’s quite small, but features more than 1000 native plants and a steamy lizard scene.
reviewed
-
Butcher’s Pool
A 30km detour from Orakei Korako will take you to Butcher’s Pool, a bedecked but otherwise purely natural thermal spring in the middle of a farmer’s paddock. Alongside is a small parking area and changing sheds. To get there, turn left onto SH5 at Mihi (follow the signs to Rotorua). After 4km look out for Homestead Rd on your right. Follow it to the end, turn left and look for a row of trees lining a gravel driveway off to your right about 300m away (the signpost can be difficult to spot as it’s pointing from the other side of the road).
reviewed
-
River Walk Visitor Centre
About 4km south of Turangi on SH1 is the DOC-managed trout hatchery, which is a pleasant stop even if you’re not a fish fanatic. The landscaped walkway makes for a short and gentle stroll, and there are several interesting stops en route, including an underwater viewing chamber, a hatchery, keeping ponds and a picnic area. The River Walk visitor centre, run by volunteers, has polished educational displays, a collection of rods and reels dating back to the 1880s and a theatrette showing a 14-minute film about the river.
reviewed
-
B
Big Carrot
No matter who you ask in NZ, the name Ohakune means carrots; the town produces two-thirds of the North Island’s crop. In 1984 the township saluted the town’s biggest vegetable crop by erecting the Big Carrot, which quickly became one of NZ’s most hugged ‘Big Things’. Carrots were first grown in the area during the 1920s by Chinese settlers, who cleared land by hand and explosives! Today the Carrot Carnival is celebrated at the beginning of October with a parade and lots of dressing up in orange.
reviewed
-
Orakei Korako Cave & Thermal Park
A bit off the beaten track, Orakei Korako Cave & Thermal Park gets fewer visitors than other thermal areas. But, since the destruction of the Pink and White Terraces, it is arguably the best thermal area left in NZ. Although three-quarters of it now lies beneath the dam waters of Lake Ohakuri, the remaining quarter is pretty interesting.
reviewed
-
Tokaanu Thermal Pools
The Tokaanu Thermal Pools, 5km northwest of Turangi, is an unpretentious facility with hot pools, a trout stream, a picnic area, displays and a shop. A 20-minute stroll along the boardwalk (wheelchair accessible) showcases mud pools and thermal springs.
reviewed
-
C
Tokaanu Power Station
reviewed
-
Te Porere Redoubt
reviewed
-
Te Ponanga Saddle
reviewed
-
Te Mari Crater
reviewed
Advertisement
-
South Crater
reviewed
-
Red Crater
reviewed
-
Opotaka Historic Place
reviewed
-
North Crater
reviewed
-
Central Crater
reviewed
-
D
Lookout
reviewed
-
Maori Carvings
There are 10m-high Maori Carvings, accessible only by boat, at the lake’s Mine Bay. They were carved by master carver Matahi Whakataka-Brightwell in the late 1970s, and depict Ngatoro-i-rangi, the visionary Maori navigator who guided the Tuwharetoa and Te Arawa tribes to the Taupo area over a thousand years ago. There are also two smaller Matahi figures here, both of Celtic design, which depict the south wind and a mermaid.
reviewed
