Marlborough Airport (BHE), which is also known as Blenheim Airport or Woodbourne Airport, is on State Highway 6 near Renwick. The airport handles Air New Zealand flights to Auckland and Wellington, Air2there flights to Paraparaumu and Sounds Air flights to Christchurch, Kaikoura, Paraparaumu and Wellington.
The Air New Zealand and Sounds Air service to and from Wellington is a good alternative to the ferry.
Sounds Air fly between Wellington and the small Picton Aerodrome (PCN), also known as Koromiko airfield, which is located 9km south of town. Sounds Air also operate their own shuttle bus to and from Picton, which picks up and drops off at most hostels and hotels in town.
Flights from Wellington are competitively priced, often working out at around the same price as the ferry and they also offer scenic views over the Marlborough Sounds.
Whakarewarewa Thermal Village combines a geothermal reserve with an authentic Maori village.
Thermal features include boiling mud pools, silica terraces, a steaming hot lake and the Pohutu and Prince of Wales geysers. At the village, you can see demonstrations of Maori craftspeople at work and twice daily cultural performances.
Waimangu Volcanic Rift Valley was created on 10 June 1886 by the eruption of Mount Tarawera, making it a relative baby compared with other thermal areas. It features Echo Crater, the world’s largest hot water spring, and Inferno Crater, the world’s largest geyser-like feature.
The park has several walkways and you can also take a boat cruise on Lake Rotomahana.
Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland is a geothermal reserve, 30km south of Rotorua (on the road to Taupo), that is home to an impressive array of thermal wonders including volcanic craters and bubbling mud pools. Highlights include the huge Champagne Pool and Lady Knox Geyser, which erupts daily at 10.15am. There is a good choice of walking trails through the geothermal area.
There is a good choice of walking trails through the geothermal area and it is worth allowing around three hours for your visit so you can do several of the walks.
Rainbow Springs is a popular nature park/theme park next to the Skyline Gondola terminal just north of Rotorua. The park’s highlights include native New Zealand wildlife including kiwi and tuatara, a trout enclosure including an underwater viewing area and an enormous eel that has lived at Rainbow Springs Nature Park for more than 60 years.
You can feed many of the animals, including the trout, and there is also a water ride (The Big Splash) that operates between 9.30am and 5pm daily.
The park is open late, which means that you can visit during the day and then come back after dark to see the kiwi in the natural (nocturnal) habitat.
Paradise Valley Springs is a wildlife park/zoo just outside Rotorua that has lots of trout as well as New Zealand wildlife and a lion enclosure.
It’s not a big attraction for most budget travellers, although you can hand-feed animals such as deer, pigs and wallabies, which makes it popular with families.
This huge 10ha site is home to a large array of geothermal features including boiling mud pools, New Zealand’s only accessible mud volcano and the Kakahi Falls – the largest hot waterfall in the Southern Hemisphere. The complex also includes mud baths and a sulphur spa.
In June 1886, Mount Tarawera erupted and destroyed Te Wairoa and two smaller villages under a flood of hot ash and mud. New Zealand’s equivalent of Pompeii features excavated village dwellings and a museum detailing the events surrounding Tarawera’s eruption.
Established in the 1930s, the Blue Baths is New Zealand’s first unisex swimming pool and is still one of the most elegant. It houses a museum with displays detailing the pool’s history.