Rotorua Christmas Lights trail (+map and list)

Rotorua will come alive with this Christmas with lights

The owners of properties all over Rotorua will light up your nights this Christmas as part of The Professionals Christmas Lights Trail.

For the past 16 years, Ian McDowell and the team from The Professionals McDowell Real Estate have sponsored and run the event, and they have no plans on stopping.

"We keep it going because we think it's a fantastic thing. I dropped a ham off to a couple who were out in Holdens Bay. They said they have had a continuous stream of cars since Thursday.

"People appreciate them and drive around visiting all of them. Some years we have had sort of traffic jams, especially if the house is in a cul-de-sac."

Mr McDowell will give away 12 prizes of $250 for the homes that show most artistic flair with their display - with three prizes for new entrants, he said.

"We are trying to encourage new entrants, people might look at existing displays and think 'I can't compete with that.'

"We will be judging on a whole mixture of artistic styles, some are quite different to others with massive lights, but it's more the artistic flair and the overall appearance," he said.

Christine Wall has participated in the Christmas lights trail for the past nine years and said it was great fun.

"It's good fun, the family get together and have a plan and away we go.

"A lot of the comments from people from drive-bys and walk-bys show that it gives a lot of people a lot of pleasure."

She said a dozen or more cars had been going past her property admiring the lights.

Mrs Wall encourages people to get into the Christmas spirit.

"I want other people to enter.

"It's fun, it doesn't have to be huge, you don't have to have millions of lights or spend millions of dollars out there, just get the lights up," she said.

View the properties at www.open2view.com and use ID number 329542.

Lights will be on from 8.30pm to 10.30pm.