Kuirau Park

If you’re looking for a place to see geothermal pools and explore with your family/friends Kuirau Park is the perfect place for you. You can see a vast amount of pools and as you walk through the trails you can unravel the amazing wonders of this park at a cost of $0.

A wonderful geothermal park with so many thermal springs lying around. We were even able to soak our feet in one of those hot springs with its healing minerals for our feet . Again another must visit sight and incredibly Free . I highly recommend it 👌

It was nice to be able to have a walk around a geothermal park that is free to view. Would be nice if there was some better drainage, so there weren't puddles inbthe grass walkways to have to walk through, but as mentioned, it was free!

This is definitely one of the best thermal parks that I've visited in New Zealand. Whilst it doesn't have the colours of Waiotapu or the unique guided experience provided at Te Puia, it makes it up in its own unique way. It's a fantastic public park with expansive lawns, foot baths and marvellous thermal pools with each turn providing new visuals that adds up to a very relaxing experience; perhaps perfect for a relaxing afternoon retreat when the weather's right. You'll easily spend hours here relaxing and admiring the stunning scenery. What's more? All this is available for free!

This place is awesome for being a free park for anyone to wander around. Compared to Waiotapu, it is not be as vibrant and probably in need of some maintenance. Definitely worth a quick visit looking at all the pools or dipping your feet in the foot baths (super busy though)

A fantastic and free way to witness geothermal wonders up close. Don't miss the unique and relaxing free thermal foot baths. Well-maintained paths past bubbling mud pools, steaming vents, and a captivating crater lake – perfect for photos! On Saturday mornings, the vibrant Rotary Market adds local flavour. The sulphur smell is present (eeek), but welcome to Rotorua! It’s a must-see, offering a real taste of the area's natural environment without costing a cent.

Good place to see geothermal wonders for FREE and such a beautiful park. There's a playground for kids to enjoy too.

Kuirau park was an amazing immersion experience wandering around the geothermal activity boiling mud soaking feet in the mineral pools super fun for the kids but keep an eye on them

This park has a lot of variety, a beautifully landscaped blue lake, geothermal areas, flower gardens, green space, many varieties of trees and scrubs, and a developed geothermal foot soaking station and wading pool. The water levels were low in several of the geothermal areas versus the last time we visited, but the park is still a great, free asset.

By far the best experience within Rotorua. If not on our entire trip, this place cannot be more underrated. It's a huge park with cool geothermal activity. Lots of interesting wildlife and birds and just a nice park in general to be around. Plenty of parking. It was pretty empty when we went. Definitely stop by if you're in the area and walk by the hot pools.

Our first stop at Rotorua was Kuirau Park. It is open to the public with no admission fee and no closing hours really. What surprised me about this place was that, there were fumaroles emitting from every nook and corner of this huge park. Don't worry though, as long as you stay on the boardwalks and don't walk beyond the safety fence, you are good. The legend has it that in early Maori times, when a beautiful, young woman named Kuiarau was bathing in a lake in this park, a legendary creature named Taniwha dragged her to his lair. The irked goddesses made the water boil to destroy the creature. From then on, the water continues to boil and is named after the gorgeous woman, so the legend goes. The park is still alive with vigorous geothermal activity; take a walk around to see the fumaroles, steam vents, mud pools and boiling lakes up close. When the wind blows, the steam swirls around emanating the rotten egg. Trust me when I say this - the smell during the first few minutes is unbearable, but you'll get used to it when you spend more time in Rotorua.

First off the address is wrong. The park can't be missed, if you'r driving by downtown Rotorua, you'll see this park. It's huge, plenty of parking and lots to see. You'll want to see the bubbling mud pools and boiling lakes. It's a very interesting sight to see. I always drag my wife to each city's big park, but this park was more unique than any other city.

Public park in Rotorua. Because of all the geothermal activity in the area, the park features steam vents, boiling lakes, bubbling mud pools, etc. These areas are all fenced off so you can view them at a safe distance. You can walk on a little bridge that takes you over a boiling hot lake. Walking through the clouds of steam over the lake was a lot of fun, but it made picture-taking a bit challenging. The best part of the experience is that since it's a public park, it's all free. The only negative is the faint sulphur smell in the air. Actually, the ENTIRE town smelled faintly of sulphur, but if you're there for a few days, you learn to ignore it.

What Anu said. You want to see geothermal activity in Rotorua? I was mystified by all the options and maybe I never got that clarified. Anyway, this one is free so yeah. Not bad, not bad. It's like a zoo for geothermal activity. Walk around, peer over the wooden fences, smell the smells.