On Wednesday, 15 August, level three Geography and Travel & Tourism classes started their three day trip to Rotorua to learn about the development of tourism over time in New Zealand and specifically in the district.

Rotorua is the heart of New Zealand tourism which started back in the late 1800’s with the Pink and White Terraces. It has developed into a home to various attractions based around the geothermal activity in the district, adventure thrills and Maori cultural experiences. We were all very fortunate enough to learn about this development in the best way – experiencing a number of attractions ourselves such as Ogo, Rotorua Museum, Te Puia, Agrodome, the classic Skyline Luge, Redwoods Treewalk and White Water Rafting on the Kaituna river with Kaitiaki adventures (as well as listening to talks from industry experts at the various locations).

With Rotorua only being around three hours away from Auckland, the district is easily overlooked as somewhere to go on holiday for many Auckland residents and many of us had never been there before. Tourism in Rotorua continues to grow which made our trip a lot of fun as we all experienced both new, classic and improved attractions. Overall, it was an awesome trip exploring what is on offer for both international and domestic tourists such as ourselves.

A big thank you to Miss Bakker, Mrs Tipa and Mr Simpson, we would not have been able to explore the heart of New Zealand tourism without their organisation and bravery of accompanying 32 students to another city.