Rotorua: Daytime Scenic Lake Rotoiti Kayak Tour

Loved the day we spent kayaking on Lake Rotoiti. Our guides were outstanding, dividing us quickly into 4 small groups. We paddled for 6.3 miles round trip on this beautiful lake. The glow worm cave was small but interesting. Seemed very personalized and we asked many questions. Local meat pies were served for lunch and we spent time soaking in the thermal hot pools before returning to shore. Our guide Aaron was excellent. He told us Māori origin stories about the worms and we learned many cool facts. It was a great day and we highly recommend this tour in Rotorua!

It got a bit windy and choppy so we got a little wetter than anticipated. The hot pools are worth the work to get there. Hot and warm and you can plunge in the lake to cool off.

We had a gorgeous day on the lake with our cruise ship excursion. The lake was still with dozens of black swans were on the lake. The glow worm caves were fascinating and the lunch at the thermal pools was a welcome break. This tour company provides a fun and unique perspective of New Zealand. It is an activity that I highly recommend. It provides for a memorable day. If you can negotiate single kayaks instead of double, it will be better for your marriage and/or friendship. It is a long paddle and not all of the pairs wanted to sit on the same side of the bus as their partner on the way back. A kind, well-intended request to the tour company, please update or better maintain your composting toilets and changing rooms. Thanks.

Amazing kayaking experience with great guides. Enjoyed seeing the glow worms and relaxing in the hot pools. Highly recommended!

The website instructions were vague. The only clothing storage area was inside the bus. It took about 1 hour to paddle and reach the lake cave. 5 kayaks were crammed into the tight cave to view about a dozen glow worms. It took another hour of paddling to have lunch on the opposite side of the lake. No running water and pit toilets with insects flying around. Minimal lunch was good but no time to soak in man made hot tubs. It took another hour to paddle back to base on the opposite side of the lake again. There was minimal running fresh water with soap and the changing area wasn’t very clean. The next day we found many cheaper, less stressful, vendors via boat or hiking to view glow worms not offered by Princess Cruises.

Cancelled but didn’t bother to tell me. I called them while I waiting at the meeting spot wondering why there was no one there. Wasted my whole day

Great experience and fun day with family. Enjoyable experience, great staff and helpful customers service will definitely recommend friends and family

We had the best guide, full of knowledge and a great personality. Made sure we all stayed together, keep the Chat flowing and reassured us that we we doing good. Picture perfect weather conditions made this experience top notch and the thermal spas topped it right off.

We had to cancel because the pick-up and drop- off point was a 45 min drive from the cruise port. There was no way to reasonably arrange transportation to/from the ship and still have time for the activity. Otherwise, we had very much hoped to do this.

Great excursion! Beautiful calm Lake with an excellent guide Kira! Perfect weather , went to hot springs and glowing cave Wonderful time!

We ere picked up at our cruise on time. nice ride to the laks, our guide very engaging. His name is Royce. The kayaks were easy to operate and stable. Many guides with our group of 15 or so double kayaks. Scenery beautiful. Glowowrms in cave were a nice addition. Paddled to thermal springs for luch and a hot soak. Not sure what we had for lund=ch but it was delicious! At leaast 5 pools of varying temperatures so everyone had their pick. An overall nice day and would do it aagain!

Fantastic scenery with plenty of commentary from our driver/guide, Sara, plus a few bad jokes. The hot pools were relaxing and going from the pools to the cool lake water and back to the pools was invigorating and something new for me. The glow worms were less than expected but it was a daytime tour and we were advised the grotto would not be as impressive as at night. All of the guides were great. I would definitely go back and do the night tour, but the day trip was still a great experience.

The tour description told of a kayak trip and viewing of glow worms. The kayak part was nice on a picturesque lake, but the glow worm experience was poor. The cave was extremely small and no glow worms were observed. I understand that it is nature, but there should have been some alternate plans for glow worm observation. Our group guide (Lucy) knew very little about the lake or how to best observe the glow worms. Very disappointing.

We had a fantastic morning on the lake with Sarah as our guide. We are a family of six with our youngest children (twins) aged 9. It was great having double kayaks as it was a reasonable distance but we all managed fine. The glow worms were a little shy but the hot pools were fantastic. Would do it all again tomorrow if we could. Great family times. Highly recommended.

What a brilliant day with these guys. So well organised for our large group from the cruise ship. Glow worms were amazing, kayaking was a great experience, chocolate snacks for energy was appreciated, and lunch was great. Hot springs were far hotter than expected but all the same were lovely.

We took this tour when we visited New Zealand on a cruise. We are moderately active middle aged people and we found this combination of kayaking, nature exploring and soaking in thermal pools to be better than we anticipated. Like many other reviewers we were with Royce as our guide. The tour company exceeded our expectations with the little touches - providing us with eco friendly bottles of water and a delicious local chocolate bar before we left on our adventure. We had excellent weather so the kayaking was not as strenuous as we expected. I would not recommend this for people with shoulder issues or who are not regularly active though. We LOVED this adventure and would do it again.

Great day to see the lake and hot pools in New Zealand! Strenuous in kayaks but overall quite positive. We were Team Royce and he was a knowledgeable guide.

We had a blast right from the start, with the friendly and rather entertaining Royce as our guide for the day. What's not to like, choccy bar and water to fuel us for the kayaking across to the thermal pools. Pie and a cookie for lunch once we got to the pools, followed by an ice lolly to cool us down. Then, kayaking to the small cave with the glow worms.

Kayak journey was done at a tolerable pace, I'm 78 so was a little nervous. Staff were cheerful, friendly and very helpful. Loved the dip in the hot pool, could have stayed longer!

Fantastic kayak adventure in New Zealand! Equipment was provided and we were shown how to use it (or helped as needed). Beautiful lake! Commentary as we paddled so we knew about the lake. Glow worms were cool. Snack was good and thermal waters were great!!

Enjoyed the trip we were in the area for a cruise and this was the shore excursion we chose. Trip included the glow worm cave, hot springs and a lunch. Be advised out total trip was 5 miles of kayaking, and we were not mentally prepared for a trip of that length (we are in our 60’s). The team was experienced and fun and we didn’t even mind the rain we had off and on for the day.

Overall was such an amazing experience. The staff (Kayla in particular) was super helpful when I had made a mistake on our booking and she managed to hook us up last minute with our tour guy Chris. Chris was a great laugh and educated us on the lake and all about glowworms. We had such a fun day with lots of laughs and loved the whole experience.

Had this experience with my teenage boys and it was such a memorable experience. The kayaking was so much fun. The two guides were fun and informative. The glow worms was a nice experience and the hot pools was a nice relief at the half way mark of the tour. They provide water, chocolate and a small lunch at the hot pools.

Great kayaking on the large beautiful lake with delightful hot pools and glow worm cave. The guides Jonathan and Hannah were so helpful and experienced. Our tickets were expensive through Princess Cruise lines. This is best done by very energetic and active participants.

Lake Rotoiti is such a beauty. Even though we started the tour with a heavy rain it was so worth it. Due to the weather being unstable we had the lake and the hot pools for ourself, it was very peaceful and absolutely stunning. Special Thank you to Dan our guide and Charlotte who managed to organise the tour for us at the last minute. Caroline & Mike

This was the highlight of a whole week in Rotorua for us. Despite it being July and cold the kayaking was fun and we kept mostly dry! We changed days due to the weather and they were super flexible about that. We had a great guide in Don who shared great stories and who we felt very much in safe and capable hands with. How amazing are the hot pools!! For a full half day experience we feel this is excellent value for money.

A big shout to Arkie...absolutely a stunning trip with only me and partner. Everything is just over the expectations. If you have time ,please definitely put it into your Rotorua itinerary. We love it!

This was truly an enjoyable adventure! Our guide was friendly and a great conversationalist. We happened to be the only ones who had booked for this particular day, so we got to experience the lake, cave and hot pools at our leisure. Our guide was knowledgeable about the area and history, and kept a comfortable pace with us on the lake. We would recommend this as a must do if you enjoy outdoor activity!

We did this tour as part of a shore excursion from our ship. There were several older people in our group. The team did a great job with safety and led us at our pace not theirs. I am sure it was kinda boring for them. They were very knowledgeable about the entire area. The lake is spectacular! All the guides were engaging and entertaining. Special shout out to John and Pete. Cannot day enough about this trip.

(From cruise ship)... best tour guide! With Blair, one of the owners, Marko and Jack. A real shout out to such pure joy and passion in running the tour. It’s rare to come across such genuine people who love what they do. Thank you. Top notch. Highly recommended. Great sense of humour

Really enjoyed this, it was a lovely night on a well organised trip with a very friendly & helpful guide...

They offer a number of different tour options - we opted for the Starlight Tour. We met our guide at the Okere Falls Cafe after booking via our accommodation - we met at 6:45 pm and finished around 10:00, so have dinner before you go (although they do have a BBQ option, so check when booking) We paddled gently across Lake Rotoiti, taking in the stunning views and marvelling at the changing skies - fabulous sunset on our trip We visited the thermal pools by the lakeside which are only accessible by boat. After spending 15 minutes in the hot pools, we were back in the kayaks, heading to the glow worm caves. Going in there just after sunset was a really magical experience You don’t need to be super fit - it’s not strenuous - just have a sense of fun, adventure and be prepared to get wet (obviously!) Our guide was great fun and very knowledgeable - you need nothing more than a change of clothes, towel, sunscreen and insect repellent- maybe a snack although we were given a bottle of water and a chocolate bar - would definitely recommend

I had a wonderful tour with kajak connaisseur Ollie. The hot springs were nice, especially the slide into the lake to cool down was fun. Recommend!

Went on this trip today with 2 boys - aged 7 & 9. Double kayaks so parents did a lot of the kayaking. First to Glowworm cave. Awesome experience gliding in on a kayak. Then over to some hot pools accessible only by boat. Our guide Jack was amazing. We would totally recommend this trip.

Travelled from cruise ship pickup in Tauranga with small group (12) for a days Kayaking on Lake Rotoiti and visit to Glowworm caves. Great apprehension from wife who was not at all keen as a first time experience but no need to worry as we had two excellent and well experienced Kayak guides to assist with everything. Kitted out with lifejackets, Kayaks and water for journey and started an hours travel around the lake on a beautiful windless sunny day to the glowworm caves. Interesting but not sure if I could describe it as earth shattering. Paddled across the lake to the hot springs and a welcome Kiwi lunch served with coffees and ice creams and about 45 minutes to enjoy the hot pools and/or have a cooling swim. Another hour or so paddling back to our base and depart back to the coach for journey back to cruise ship. Great trip, great guide and instruction and overall a much enjoyed day out. Many thanks and would certainly recommend the activity.

<p>The glow worm cave was very small and pretty disappointing. We were not given the water and snack or the dry bag for our cameras and phones as advertised. The tour guide gave us heaps of information on the glow worms but none on the wildlife or Rotorua also as advertised. The view of the lake however, was amazing but I felt that the tour was very overpriced for what we got.</p>