After pickup at your Rotorua hotel 15 minutes before your scheduled flight, your driver whisks you to the lakefront helipad to board your helicopter. Experience the excitement and beauty of traveling by helicopter with an expert pilot as you soar above Rotorua and head east towards the distant peaks of Mount Tarawera.

Fly over farmland, lush forest and a series of lakes including Lake Rotorua and Lake Tarawera, before hovering over Mount Tarawera. Get spectacular views of the cavernous craters created by New Zealand's largest known volcanic eruption in 1886. The cataclysmic explosion devastated the local area, killing about 120 people and destroying the Pink and White Terraces, a famous natural wonder.

From your vantage point in the sky, you get the best view of the vast crater system and gorgeous surrounding landscape. Descend past volcanic domes and caldera lakes until you land at Hells Gate Geothermal Park. In the early 1900s, Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw visited and upon seeing the steaming hot pools remarked that this must be the gateway to hell, spawning the English nickname.

That's not, however, what the local Maori people call it. Otherwise known as Tikitere, the area has been home to the New Zealand natives for centuries. Take a 30-minute guided walk around Rotorua’s hottest thermal reserve. Touch the mineral-rich mud the Maori traditionally use for its healing powers; it is also widely used in beauty treatments. Your guide takes you around the geothermal park’s hot lakes, mud volcano and ancient cooking pools.

After a 30-minute walk at a leisurely pace, return to your helicopter for the short return flight to Rotorua. Buzz past Mokoia Island and take in aerial views of the city before landing at the lakefront where your return transport awaits.