It includes many geothermal features such as steaming lakes, mudpools, fumaroles, a mud volcano and the Kakahi Falls, the largest hot waterfall in the southern hemisphere.

[4] The area is operated under the name "Hell’s Gate", and offers self-guided and guided tours of the geothermal park, information about its history and Māori culture, and a mud spa.

The local Māori tribe Ngāti Rangiteaorere has lived in this area for more than 700 years and remain the owner of this geothermal attraction.

Upon finding her daughter's body floating in the hot pool, Hurutini's mother cried out a sad lament "Aue teri nei tiki" ("here lies my precious one"), which was shortened to Tikitere and became the name from the thermal reserve and the surrounding area.

"Hells Gate", its most commonly known name, was used following the visit to the geothermal reserve by noted Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw in 1934 who likened the area to the comments that were made by his theologian colleagues back in England who were explaining to him that the result of the error of his ways as a practising atheist would result in his "going to hell".

The Tikitere urban area includes Waiōhewa Marae and Rangiwhakaekeau meeting house,[9] belonging to Ngāti Rangiteaorere.

[13] The features of the 50 acres (20 ha) geothermal park can be explored via two easy-walking, relatively flat loop walks, taking 45 to 60 minutes in total.

The lower area is encircled by a loop walk with bridges and viewing platforms, and contains about a dozen hot pools such as "Sodom and Gomorrah" and "Devil's Bath", with depths of 15 to 25 metres.

Separating the lower and upper area is a short easy-walking bush walk along the stream flowing over the Kakahi Falls.

The waterfall has always been a special place for local Māori, with warriors using it to cleanse themselves after battles, the sulphur in the water disinfecting wounds.

A larger loop walk takes in the upper geothermal area, which contains expansive hot pools of varying activity as well as steaming fumaroles.

Other pools in the upper area range from around 40 to 90 °C (104 to 194 °F) and were traditionally used for cooking, and medicinal purposes such as treating skin diseases and arthritis.

[17] The Tikitere-Ruahine geothermal field[5] is part of the Rotorua Volcanic Centre and has a surface area of 10 km2 (3.9 sq mi) characterised by acid springs, pools and lakelets, fumaroles, hydrothermal explosion craters, hot barren and altered ground and mudpools.

[20] The acid waters are known to harbour extremophile bacteria and distinct strains of the OP10 phylogenetic candidate bacterial division have been parially characterised from Tikitere.