Highlights

Day One - Auckland / Waitomo / Rotorua

• DEPART AUCKLAND:
  Travel the main Southern Highway through small rural townships steeped in early pioneer history. Your host serves morning tea during this sector.
• WAIKATO:
  Travel through New Zealand's largest dairy and sheep farming province. Travel the outskirts of Hamilton City via the small farming settlements towards the King Country, birthplace of the Maori Monarchy.
• WAITOMO GLOW-WORM CAVES:
  Join a guided tour through this world-famous cave formation, climaxed by drifting silently in a boat through a glow-worm cavern lit up with thousands of tiny glow worm lights.
• LIGHT LUNCH:
  Served on-board as we make our way to Rotorua through magnificent rural farmland with its vast numbers of grazing animals.*
• ROTORUA:
  New Zealand's highest city, 305 meters (1000 feet) above sea level, located inside the rim of a volcanic crater. An area of great geothermal activity. We visit the following attractions:
• AGRODOME FARM TOUR:
  An introduction to New Zealand farming, with a 45-minute tour of an authentic working farm in all-weather, all-terrain vehicles. Watch a sheep being shorn, hand-feed the animals and finish with a sheep dog trial.
• ROTORUA LAKE FRONT:
  Drive through the foreshore park past the hundreds of ducks and swans. Then through the beautiful and historic Government Gardens.
• TE PUIA CULTURAL PERFORMANCE
  A 45 minute show of Maori song and dance inside Te Puia's sacred meeting house.
• TE PUIA INSTITUTE (MAORI ARTS & CRAFTS AND WHAKAREWAREWA THERMAL RESERVE):
  One of Rotorua's most famous attractions. See woodcarving, weaving displays, Maori village and the thermal valley with the famous Pohutu Geyser, fumaroles, colourful silica deposits and boiling mud pools.
• BUFFET DINNER / HANGI AND CONCERT:
  Tonight you have the choice of a buffet dinner at the Heritage Hotel or you may wish to relive today's Maori cultural performance by being entertained with a traditional Maori Concert while dining on a sumptuous selection of food perpared by local Maori and cooked in geothermal steam underground Hangi. Please specify which option you would prefer at the time of booking.

Day Two - Lake Taupo / Auckland

• JOIN THE COACH FOR LAKE TAUPO:
  Departing from Park Heritage Hotel at 9:15 am.
• WAI-O-TAPU THERMAL WONDERLAND
  Watch the Lady Knox Geyser erupt then follow the marked trails around this awesome spectacle of boiling mud, the Champagne Pool, Devil's Cauldron and the colourful Artist's Palette
• OTHER HIGHTLIGHTS TO INCLUDE
  Huka Falls, Huka Jet (own expense), Lake Taupo, Aratiatia Dam, Wairakei Geothermal Power Station, World's Largest Man-Made Radiata Pine Forests.
• DEPART FOR AUCKLAND
  Via our deluxe coach departing Heritage Hotel at 5:00 pm (approximate).

Tour Operates Daily

• From 172 Quay Street opposite the Ferry Building or your Hotel/Motel.
• Tour Departs 7:30 am Terminates 8:15 pm (approximate)
• Fare includes: Hotel/Motel pickups, multi-lingual service, Waitomo caves admission, Rotorua highlights tour, Buffet Dinner or hangi and concert Day 1, twin share accommodation.
• DAY TWO: Taupo day tour and return to Auckland
• An alternative hotel will be booked if the Heritage Hotel is unavailable

Highly Recommended
Spend an extra day at leisure in Rotorua returning on the evening of Day 3 for $930 per person twin share (Tour Code 8TXN)