Took the Te Puia Geothermal Valley Rotorua tour from Auckland on Jan 5 and had an absolutely wonderful time. It is exactly what is advertised - small group tour from Auckland (the group had 9 people combined) and travelled in a small 15 seater that had both Wifi and USB outlets for charging mobile devices.
Picking up at 6:20am as advertised, a key highlight was the absolutely fantastic driver / guide Jason - he is humorous, knowledgeable, and would go above and beyond to satisfy group members. As we arrived a little earlier into Rotorua, Jason went beyond and gave us a short, scenic sightseeing drive around Rotorua before the visit to Te Puia. Throughout the journey, Jason gave some fantastic stories, experiences from his own childhood and New Zealand customs and stories that were a fascinating addition to the trip itself.
If you only had time for one simple destination like we did, then Te Puia is the “must go” on any tour of Rotorua. All encompassing, 100-120 minute tour including the sights of the Geysers and Volcanic Mud Pools, to a kiwi bird enclosure (can’t take pictures), to learning basics of Māori culture and glimpses of the life of Māoris including activities such as carving, weaving and other cultural activities it is literally a full New Zealand experience incredibly condensed into 100 fantastic minutes. While we didn’t have the opportunity to do the extras, going for the cultural shows or even workshops would definitely be encouraged.
On the return, we didn’t take the trip back to Auckland that was part of the tour, but instead Jason dropped us off at the Bus Stop for us to continue our journey to Taupo as we had a booked a separate 1pm bus to see the Huka Falls (there isn’t a tour we could find that included both Huka Falls and Te Puia and so had to improvise).
Overall, if you don’t have the time to do much more then this is an absolutely fantastic short trip to do. If you have more time however, I’d suggest taking trips that have slightly more to experience.