Step into a world that honestly feels like another planet. Wai-O-Tapu is full of bubbling mud pools, steaming vents, and vividly coloured hot springs. The most famous, the Champagne Pool, glows bright turquoise, reds, yellows, and greens from mineral deposits.

There is a big walking track here, where you can choose a track to do and spent as little as 30 minutes. Most people spend around 2-3 hours here.

There’s a lot to explore on the walking tracks, and if you time it right, you can catch the Lady Knox Geyser (just down the road from Wai-O-Tapu, not in the park itself) erupting in a dramatic plume of steam. Its daily eruption is artificially induced by adding soap (a surfactant) to trigger it, as its natural cycle is unpredictable (24-48 hours). It's a genuine geothermal feature that was discovered by prisoners using the hot water for laundry, but staff now use soap to guarantee a spectacular, timed show for tourists and it is awesome!

The Lady Knox Geyser presentation runs 10.15am daily, arrive by 9.45am.

Wai-O-Tapu Website - https://www.waiotapu.co.nz/