Tarawera And Rotorua Lakes Eco Tour By Boat With Guide

This was different and fun, especially with our guide Aaron who was amazing. Knowledgeable, kind and funny. He ensured we had a great adventure.

Fantastic experience! Aaron was a brilliant guide, very knowledgeable and great sense of humour. Beautiful scenery and lots of history. Would definitely recommend ☺️

My family and I loved this adventure. If you enjoy listening to myths and legends also history welcome aboard mother duck......Also it was good going past some other iconic places to visit it made me create my own itinerary as a tourist...our driver is very informative and will have you quacking up

Great trip , fantastic host - my son was amazed by the vehicle and driving straight into the water

Pootu & Maui here and we had an awesome time with Tim & the rest of the group. We missed our first tour at 11am, so we booked for the one at 2:15pm and honestly, it was just AMAZING. Our tour guide is the BEST! Thank you so much for everything Tim.

We had an absolutely fantastic time on the Duck Tour! There were 6 of us in total—four visiting from the Polynesian Spa Retreat—and we joined the 3:30pm Lake Tarawera tour. Our guide Aaron (I think that was his name 🤔—the hilarious one!) and driver Matt made the experience unforgettable. We loved learning about the unique history of the “boat,” the surrounding geography, and the rich Māori stories shared along the way. The highlight was definitely the thrilling splash into the lake—and even more amazing was driving straight back out onto land! At one stop, one of our friends couldn’t resist and literally jumped in for a swim, which made the whole experience even more memorable. We’ll absolutely be recommending this to all of our visiting guests at the spa!

So very informative and totally enjoyable. Driver Matt and Aaron were both great. A little light humour made the experience great fun

Wow! This is some tour. My wife and I did the tour this afternoon and it was simply brilliant. Tim was our driver/guide and he simply did a great job to make the tour so memorable - great stories; great laughs; great information, so you learn so much about the lakes and the area you are travelling through. One of the best activities we've experienced since we've been in New Zealand. Put it top of your 'to do' list if you're visiting Rotarua! It tells you something about Tim's sense of humour when he plays music from 'The Titanic' when the 'Duck' enters the first lake!! Brilliant trip. Thank you, Tim

We had a good time till our weather forecast turned red warnings so missed out on last lake as too risky to go, our guide was always looking out for our safety!

Great tour.Tim was an amazing guide, very funny, friendly and very informative. Would recommend, great scenery. Time was spot on, 1.5 hr good time

This was a fun experience for sure! The duck tour was fun and we even learned a lot! We had a new guide who was training (with a veteran accompanying her) so we hit the jackpot! They were both caring and helpful.

Great experience Great comical lady driver Very factual tour A must do tour. Funny songs played when entering the lakes.

We had a fabulous time on the tour. Matt was very funny and great story teller All three lakes were great. We got to Al almost endangered bird

It was really great learniing so much amazing history of Rotorua. Also learned a lot about the history of the vehicle we were in.

Great tour with an entertaining guide. A scenic route and splash down in three beautiful lakes. Loved the story behind our Duck Matilda.

We did this years ago before Covid. It was a better experience in memory. Maybe it was down to the duck whistle thing is no longer available, or the guide commentary wasn’t as fun and clear as before. The speaker quality was poor that you barely heard anything. It ruined a big part of experience as this is heavily guide driven. I saw the company’s feedback for this issue is this is part of experience because the vehicle is old and loud. But this is never a good excuse if the visitors can’t hear anything. They should have done better.

Trevor is the best guide. He told us so many interesting things on the way, he has a great humor and the places we went were great. He Even made the rainbow come our for us 😉 I can only recommend this tours. Good value for money!

Really disappointed with the experience. Extremely noisy bus. I wouldn't recommend it. Way too expensive and not worth the time.

Our tour guides Rileigh and Matt were wonderful. Rileigh was fantastic, she told us of all the local history and stories of the people. Her knowledge and information was fantastic and really brought the island and scenery to life. Matt’s driving was very comfortable and you felt at ease and safe the whole time. This is a fantastic experience and definitely makes you feel jealous not to be able to live in this beautiful place! Definitely an attraction worth seeing and doing!

Had a great experience on the tour and Esta made it more enjoyable with her stories and humour. She was great with our girls they had a great time…thanks Esta

Great trip to see the lakes, wildlife and magnificent scenery. Our driver/guide was entertaining and informative, bringing the tour to life. We loved travelling in the DUKW, especially the splashdowns! Thoroughly recommended.

We are locals and it was our first trip on the duck. It was very informative and fun. The kids loved it. Thanks very much for a great afternoon :)

Esther was an amazing guide, loved the fact that she's Maori and really tried hard to make sure the stories were accurate. My partner and three kids loved it and they all Whakapapa to Te Arawa so it was awesome confirmation and learnings for them

The duck tour was very entertaining, the guide Esther was fantastic, she had fun jokes along the way and told great stories interpreting the area around us. It’s beautiful scenery of course but the guide is really what makes the scene come to life. Highly recommend being driven around on the duck, it’s a nice mix of a boat ride and transportation without any fuss. Amazing option for backpackers that don’t have a vehicle to get out and see the lakes!

We had an excellent afternoon out with our host/driver Alex exploring the stunning Lakes of Rotorua. As a local Kiwi I had not explored this area before and was blown away by the beauty, both on the land and the water. Our two children loved the trip and we all found it informative and entertaining. While in July we did not get cold and had the windows up/open the entire trip. I highly recommend for a fun family outing, away from the busy tourist attractions.

Wow this exceeded our expectations. It was so entertaining. Ether (our guide) was super funny and managed to keep us and children entertained throughout the tour.

The tour was great, Alex was fabulous and deserves a pay-rise 😊 the kids loved it. Its really cold in the wintertime though, especially at the end of the day; so rug up warm (I thought I read there were heaters and blankets onboard now, but there were neither).

Very informative and enjoyable experience. Great driver and guide, thanks Alex A+ Would recommend to all who are interested in the history of the area.

Alex was our driver - fun personality and great knowledge of the area and sights and lakes we visited. Liked also hearing about the history of the duck boat and how it was used in the war.

It was super cool. Alex was an amazing guide. Very informative and very funny. I loved the stories he told and the whole trip

Was great to get up close with some of Rotorau's Lakes. Such beautiful scenery and information from our guide Ester that told the history of the area. Alex our driver also did a wonderful job.

History and engineering of the vehicles the history of the area and the people take warm clothes and a warm hat

Esther was a fantastic guide and driver. She was very friendly and was so informative about the lakes’ myths and legends

Fantastic tour. My family thoroughly enjoyed it. Highlight of our Rotorua trip. Recommend it to have it on your itinerary.

It was fun to see the countryside with the forests and small lakes, a good look at New Zealand's terrain. And floating on the lakes is very pleasant.

the experience off going from a duck on land then into the water and the driver giving the history off these stunning lakes we had visited

As a māori decendant who was born & raised overseas it would be most appreciated to hear the māori names/words pronouced correctly. The guide was very knowledgable & very welcoming, but i would love to hear the guide try to pronounce our reo a bit better.

Great guide and wonderful experience. Great to hear the history and learn about the local area. Remember to tug up as it was very chilly on the afternoon trip.

This was great, staff very helpful and informative when booking and on the trip. Great visiting the three lakes and just driving in and motoring around. Saw some wildlife and really enjoyed Lake Tarawera especially. Learned a bit, heard a few great stories as we were driving - great fun!

Memorable boat tour! Our guide was awesome and left me in fits of laughter. He was extremely knowledgeable and interesting. However the bus ride was extremely cold and I wish I had been warned before booking that I would need a warm jacket. Could the bus be fitted with heaters

Esther our tour guide made it informative, fun and interactive. We loved her and her personality. The Lakes were beautiful and it was interesting hearing all the stories about the history. Highly recommend.

It was a great tour and a lot of fun. Our guide was knowledgeable and entertaining. The views were amazing. Well worth the trip.

The Ducks are iconic and we’d always wanted to try them out. We had Ester as our driver/guide. She was outstanding and made this great tour even better. Informative and fun I highly recommend.

Marcus was a terrific Tour guide. He kept the group well entertained for the whole 2 hours of the tour stunning scenery. Would recommend the Duck Tour to everyone. Well organised everyone was so friendly and helpful.

Matt our tour guide was outstanding, funny, informative and knowledgable. Spectacular scenery all round.

The experience was wonderful. Our driver/guide was a hoot but also provided a lot of real information. The lakes were absolutely gorgeous. The tour is a real value.

A really good way to see a bit of Rotorua and three of the beautiful lakes. What a unique experience! Although the DUKW sounds 80 years old when it’s being driven, it’s comfortable and effective in getting around. It’s going onto the lakes where it comes into its though! What a great way to learn about the lakes we visited. With a fun and informative commentary from Ollie(?) the history and the geology of the lakes came to life. While not especially cheap, I thought that it was good value. I’m really glad to have done it.

Exceptional in every aspect. Definitely one of Rotorua's best tourist attractions. A "must-do" on everyone's bucket list.

It a great way to see the lakes while experiencing war time transport. The company are well organised, helpful and have a wealth of knowledge and experience which they impart during the tour. You board outside the office, get the mandatory safety talk and then set off for a "relaxing" ride to the lakes (imagination required). I would recommend to all, especially families , where else are you going to get a chance to do this, the kid will love it and so will you.