Very informative and interesting tour with friendly staff. The cafe however leaves a lot to be desired. Food was pretty good, if and when you get it. This is where the place drops off quite considerably. Not sure if it’s lack of training, no one at the cafe seemed to n ow what or how to do anything apart from put food on a plate. Messed up food or forgot dishes three times and that was on the same order. Do the tour for sure! eat elsewhere unless you want frustration to end what was a great day.

For some reason, which wasn’t explained to us, you can no longer walk around Te Puia on your own/self guided walk. The only option is to do a guided tour walk which is apparently run hourly and I believe you have to book. The customer service representative did not seem at all happy to be there.

We wanted to walk around and see the springs and the geyser but you have to do an organised tour of whichever 80% was watching crafts being made. Eventually we ran out of time and weren’t allowed to walk around the bits outside we wanted to. Overall it was quite a frustrating experience. We saw then geyser but not much more than that. A little train was supposed to pick us up but didn’t. Maybe we were just unlucky.

This once so special place has been messed up by commercial greed. We visited many times over the past 20 years and were looking forward to our visit to this place once again this holiday. However at the gate we were told that there are now only guided tours - the next one starting in 90 minutes at a cost of NZD 75 per person. One is no longer allowed to go on a self-guided walk. It was evident that the park is not interested in individual visitors but is now geared on large groups and buses. We found this a very sad development to the tourism of New Zealand. There is no need to stop in Rotorua anymore on future visits. There are many other places that are still left to explore that have kept their magic touch and beauty.

Very rushed , inexperienced guide. When asked where the students got the designs from she said they googled them!! Surly they are pasted down from generation to generation. Didn’t know the name of the shell used on the carvings and started to list the gods but gave up when she could not remember ! Adding ‘ and so on ‘ like we should know. Very disappointed not worth the money. Too big a group for 1 to deal with had to wait for ages for the back of the group to catch up. Didn’t even get to see the village listed on the points we would see ! And finished pushed into the gift shop.

It was great seeing 3 Kiwi birds as they are often difficult to find. The reason we chose the TeRa tour as it was guided & we came to see the Pohutu Geyser. Unfortunately for us our guide was late & she didn't seem interested in letting us see the geyser actually erupt. Even when the indicator geyser started she told us we had to move on & go see the Maori carvings, weavings etc. We ended up leaving the tour early so we could go back to see the geyser erupt!

We had to go on a booked tour. We were not informed that this tour was the last of the day, but it was clear by the way we were rushed around that we were not going to have time to read about the kiwi birds, explore the geothermal areas or get a real opportunity to watch the geyser going off from the viewing platform. We really appreciated the time spent in the Māori educational centre and this was a definite highlight. It was clear more time was spent here and we were allowed to appreciate the craftsmanship. I would go to a different park if you want meaningful time in a geothermal experience or perhaps earlier tours in the day are better.

Arrived at 9am with the Klook day pass. Staff said no more vacancies and she asked us to come back at 3pm. Requested self visiting the site rather than following the guided tour -> she said we couldn't. I said we were leaving Rotorua in afternoon -> she suddenly said there was vacancy for 9:15am tour. Joined the 9:15 am tour without much people on the tour. Heard other tourists needing to come back another day due to "no vacancies". The park has minimal people (as seen by our eyes). Not expecting "Day Pass" will limit timing of admission and the necessity to follow the guided tour. The visit to National Schools Of Wood Carving, Stone & Bone Carving, and Weaving part is so boring. Also we were not allowed to stay in the Pohutu Geyser to wait for the eruption during the guided tour, rather sent us to the national schools (again, boring). The true pearl (the scenary) -> the staff spend minimal time and there is even no enough time to read the descriptions.

There's a lot to do around Rotorua and a lot of it seems quite similar, so we spent a long time deciding how to spend our precious time and money. We chose badly! We went to this park intending to spend a few hours doing a self-guided walk through the thermal feaures for $35 each, as advertised on their website. When we arrived, we were told we could only enter on a tour for $90 each (twice as much as any of other thermal park in the area). Having driven a long way to get there, we foolishly agreed. Here's a summary of what we got for $180: We were rushed through some museums/workshops with plenty on display, but hardly any information about what any of it was. When there was information, we were hurried along before we had a chance to read it. We left having learned very little. We were shown a mud pool just long enough to be told it had healing properties and would be for sale later (just like the aforementioned workshop's produce was available for sale later. That seemed to be a theme...) We got to look at a Kiwi (behind glass) for 45 seconds. That's longer than we expected to see a Kiwi so it was the highlight of the tour, but it wasn't at all what we had come to do. We were eventually given 15 minutes to watch the famous geysers (during which none erupted) before being shepherded onto an electric car to leave. Honestly, it was baffling. What tour of a thermal park doesn't include any of the thermal feaures? Who charges people to see the largest geyser in the southern hemisphere and kicks them out before they've seen it erupt (which it does once or twice per hour)? We spent more time watching a man chisel a featureless piece of wood than seeing any thermal activity in this thermal park, and we paid twice as much to do it than to walk through Waimangu. The place itself is nice and the geysers themselves are amazing: if you can spend a couple of hours wandering around at your own pace, it must be lovely. We were sold a "tour" that left us feeling cheated and robbed, like paying to be on a walking sales pitch for the gift shop.

This was disappointing. It had a lot of potential to be great. The history and the stories seemed rushed. Weren’t able to get close to see anything. The kiwi area was brief. Barely saw one. Was only in the building for 2-3 minutes. The geysers don’t always have those huge eruptions. I know it’s hard to guarantee. But there should be a general idea. Tour was scheduled for 1.5 hours and ended up being just over an hour. Just felt rushed