The Redwoods, Rotorua
The Redwoods is the rare Rotorua attraction that costs nothing. Walking into the grove, parking beside it and following any of the tracks that leave it is free, and always has been — the forest's own website says so in three words. What is not free is everything that has been built above the forest floor, and there are now four separate paid experiences inside those trees. Knowing which part is which is most of what a first-time visitor needs.
Last updated 2 September 2026
Why it matters
Start with the ground, not the trees, because the trees are the newcomers. This forest is Tītokorangi, named for the pā in the hills above it. The road you drive in on now carries that name, although almost every map, sign and guidebook still says Long Mile Road. The renaming was not cosmetic. It came with the Whakarewarewa Forest development, in partnership with Tūhourangi Ngāti Wāhiao and Ngāti Whakaue. Ngā Hapū e Toru o Ngāti Whakaue marked it at dawn by raising four pou whenua. The carvings stand for the tūpuna Tuteata, Hurungaterangi, Taeotu and Te Kahu, and for the descent of the three hapū from Tuteata, who held mana over Tītokorangi. Rotorua Lakes Council’s own words for what the pou record are “mana, ancestry, bravery and continuous occupation”.
None of which is about redwoods, and that is the point to carry in with you. The redwoods are Californian and 125 years old. They have no place in tradition here, because they arrived long after it; unlike the kauri of the north, these are not ancestors. The land underneath them is a great deal older, and it is worth knowing whose it is before you park on it.
The trees are here because of an experiment that failed. New Zealand was cutting its native forests faster than anything replaced them, so the state set out to test what else would grow. Around 170 tree species went into the ground at Whakarewarewa. Planting began in 1901, redwoods among the seedlings, and by the standard account prison labour did most of it.
The experiment produced a clear winner, and it was not the redwoods. Radiata pine, the Monterey pine of an unpromising stretch of Californian coast, took to New Zealand so completely that it became the country’s dominant commercial species. You will drive past the consequences for hours. The redwoods grew beautifully, never became the commercial answer, and stayed standing.
What survives is small. Of the original twelve hectares of redwood planting, about six remain. This is a grove, not a forest of redwoods; the 5,600-odd hectares around it are largely production pine.
And they are young. A coast redwood averages around 600 years and can pass 2,000. These went in 125 years ago, which in redwood terms is adolescence, and they are already about 170 centimetres through the trunk. On height, the sources disagree. The forest’s managers give the largest as “approximately 72 metres”. The Treewalk operator invites you to encounter “75-metre-tall redwoods”, and Wikipedia’s 75 is marked on its own page as needing a citation. We have gone with 72, because it comes from the body that manages the trees and is the only sourced figure. Either way, you will not see the top.
What it’s like
The grove does something to sound before it does anything to your eyes. Traffic on Tītokorangi Drive is audible in the car park and gone within thirty paces. What replaces it is not silence but a kind of upholstered quiet. A hundred and twenty-five years of needle litter soak up the noise, and make the ground give slightly underfoot, like a track laid on foam.
Then the light. Redwood bark is a warm, fibrous red-brown that holds its colour even in flat weather. The canopy is high and the trunks are bare of branches for most of their length, so the light arrives low and sideways rather than dappled. The understorey is where it stops looking Californian. This is a Californian canopy over a New Zealand floor: silver fern, mamaku and ponga all the way down, tree ferns standing twenty metres under trees standing seventy. Nowhere else looks quite like it, because nowhere else had this particular accident.
How to visit
The forest is free. The four things built inside it are not, and they are sold separately.
Entry costs nothing — the Redwoods' own prices page says "Entry to the forest is FREE" — and that covers the grove walks and the wider track network. You can have a complete and memorable visit here without paying anybody.
Redwoods Treewalk, the daytime suspension-bridge walk, is NZ$45 an adult, NZ$28 a child (5–15), NZ$95 and NZ$135 for the two family tickets, under-fives free. It is a 700-metre circuit and takes most people thirty to forty minutes.
Redwoods Nightlights, the same structure lit after dark, is NZ$45 to NZ$55 depending on date and time slot. Since 1 September 2026 every night-time visitor books a specific date and entry time — it is no longer walk-up, and most third-party listings have not caught up.
Redwoods Glowworms is a 70-metre purpose-built cave, NZ$29 an adult and NZ$15 a child on its own — but NZ$19 and NZ$9 if you add it to a Treewalk ticket, which is the single easiest saving here.
Redwoods Altitude is the guided, harnessed one — 25 bridges, 3 ziplines, up to 25 metres, an optional four-metre controlled drop at the end, two hours, maximum ten people. NZ$145, and it includes Glowworms entry.
The combinations are where the money is, and they sit on two booking systems: Treewalk, Nightlights and Glowworms on one, Altitude on another. The Redwoods Adventure Combo covers all four for NZ$199, spread across up to three days, against at least NZ$235 bought separately. There is also a Treewalk-and-Nightlights combo and an annual pass.
Getting there and gates. The main entrance is on Tītokorangi Drive, five kilometres south-east of the city centre and ten minutes by car. The forest’s own directions still give Long Mile Road in brackets, and so do most maps. The main vehicle gates open at 5.30am and close late. The Waipa Mill Road car park runs 6am to 11pm and Te Pūtake o Tawa 6am to 9pm; walking and riding are not limited to gate hours. The Visitor Centre and i-SITE opens at 9.30am every day but Christmas, closing at 10.30pm in summer and 9.30pm in winter.
The trails are the forest’s great free asset, but this is a working production forest and felling shuts trails at short notice. The live source is the Rotorua Trails Trust’s closures page, current in July 2026, which warns that closures are “Dependent on Timing/Location of Felling Operations and can change without notice”. A general tourism listing will not tell you.
Making the most of it
Half an hour under the trees tells you whether you want to be up in them, and it costs nothing to find out. Plenty of people pay for the Treewalk, then find that what they came for is at ground level.
The price ladder is steep. On a late-December evening the twilight and early slots are NZ$55, 11pm is NZ$49, 11.40pm is NZ$45 and after midnight it is NZ$39: nearly 30% off the same walk.
This is the detail that catches families out. In early September the first Nightlights slot is 6pm; in late December it is 8.40pm, and the walk runs past midnight. A midsummer Nightlights is a late night, not an after-dinner stroll.
Bought together, Glowworms is NZ$19 for an adult and NZ$9 for a child, against NZ$29 and NZ$15 on its own. If you are doing Altitude, don’t buy it at all: entry is already included.
Cardholders pay NZ$28 for the daytime Treewalk, the child rate rather than the adult one. The rate appears in the checkout but not on the website’s price panel, so ask at the desk rather than trusting the panel.
The vehicle gates open at 5.30am. The grove is at its best with low light in it and nobody else in it, and the car park fills from mid-morning.
Give the free grove the first half hour and the pou a proper look: the paid attractions are a choice, not the point of the place.
— Andrew + MargaretNearby
The forest sits in Rotorua rather than outside it, which is unusual for anything this size. Whakarewarewa village is on its western edge, close enough that the two share a name and a history.
Te Pūtake o Tawa, on Tarawera Road, is the forest’s other hub and the better start for the trail network. The New Zealand Cycle Trail puts that network at “around 200km of purpose-built trail”; treat the figure as approximate, because published totals for this forest vary a good deal. The Blue Lake, Tikitapu, is a few minutes further along the same road, which runs on to the Buried Village and Lake Tarawera. We hired e-bikes in March 2026 and rode the trails ourselves.
If you are collecting the district’s set pieces, Rotorua itself has the rest within twenty minutes, and the geothermal parks south of the city make a very different day from this one.
A final word on the Redwoods
Go for the free half hour first. The grove is the thing, the best part of it costs nothing, and it exists at all because somebody's experiment came out the wrong way on ground that was named and occupied long before the seedlings arrived. Then buy the canopy if the canopy appeals — and in summer buy it late at night, when it is cheaper and quieter and the trees are doing the strangest version of themselves.
Andrew + Margaret
- Rotorua Overview
- Whakarewarewa Village Overview
- Huka Falls Overview
- The North Island in two weeks Journeys
- Cost of visiting New Zealand Practical
- The Redwoods — what is free, in their own words Official
- Redwoods Treewalk — the four paid experiences and their tickets Booking
- Rotorua Trails Trust — which trails are closed right now Official
- The Redwoods — the Californian redwood, and how tall it really is Culture
- The four pou whenua at Tītokorangi, and the tūpuna they carry Culture
Is the Redwoods forest free?
Yes. The Redwoods' own prices page says "Entry to the forest is FREE", covering the grove walks and the wider track network. What costs money is what has been built above the ground — Treewalk, Nightlights, Glowworms and Altitude — four separate tickets, not one.
Do I need to book Nightlights in advance?
Yes, and this changed recently. Since 1 September 2026 every night-time visitor books a specific date and entry time, in twenty-minute slots. It is no longer a walk-up attraction. Many third-party listings still describe the old arrangement, so book through the operator.
How much does it all cost?
Treewalk NZ$45 adult / NZ$28 child; Nightlights NZ$45–55 by date and time; Glowworms NZ$29 alone or NZ$19 added to a Treewalk ticket; Altitude NZ$145, which includes Glowworms. The Adventure Combo covers all four for NZ$199 across up to three days, against at least NZ$235 bought separately. New Zealand SuperGold cardholders pay NZ$28 for the daytime Treewalk — a rate that appears in the checkout but not on the website's price panel.
How tall are the trees?
About 72 metres for the largest, and there is a real disagreement about it. The forest's own management gives "approximately 72 metres"; the Treewalk operator says "75-metre-tall redwoods", and Wikipedia's 75-metre figure is flagged on its own page as uncited. We use 72 metres, from the organisation that manages the trees. Planted in 1901, they are about a hundred and twenty-five years old — young, for a species that averages six hundred.
Can I mountain bike here, and how do I know if trails are open?
Yes, and the riding is why many people come — the New Zealand Cycle Trail describes "around 200km of purpose-built trail", though published totals vary. Check the Rotorua Trails Trust closures page before you ride, not a tourism listing. This is a working production forest and trails close for logging at short notice.