New Zealand Part Four - Rotorua

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We left Taupo at around 10am after checking out of the backpackers, and the drive to Rotorua was only just under an hour. We were too early to check in to the motel that we had booked, so we drove into town and had a walk around some shops and eat lunch to kill some time, before returning to check in at around 1pm. Again, we had a nice big room with a full kitchenette and a HUGE bathroom, so we were pretty happy!

We had noticed that Rotorua in general was a bit stinky – you could see the steam from the geothermal activity below from most angles, no matter where you were standing! We had done a bit of research and had decided to spend the afternoon at an attraction called ‘Skyline’ – a gondola up a mountain which had several luge tracks. A luge is kind of like a toboggan crossed with a go-kart – you sit on it very close to the ground and steer it with bike handles, then to brake you just pull the handles towards you. Even though the weather was a bit iffy - it was a little overcast and looked like it might rain - we didn’t want to waste the day so we set off anyway, and it took about ten minutes to reach the car park.

We paid for a package which included a return gondola ride and five luge rides each, then got into a gondola car and started to ascend up the mountain. It gave us some pretty good views of Lake Rotorua below, and we could soon see the winding luge tracks that made their way partway down the mountain. Once at the top, we each grabbed a helmet and joined the short queue at the start of the luge tracks. There were three tracks – one called the scenic track, which is more for beginners but is also the longest track at two kilometres long, a second intermediate track which was a little steeper with sharper bends, and finally the advanced track, with some very tight bends and large dips in the track.

Everyone has to start with the scenic track, so once we had both been shown to a luge and given a short demonstration of how to use it, we were off! In no time we were winding down the mountain, passing through forests filled with Redwood trees and enjoying great views of Rotorua at the bottom of the mountain. We had to dodge and overtake a few people who decided to go ridiculously slow all the way down, and in no time we saw the signs to slow down for the end of the luge track. All of the tracks end at the same point, where a chairlift awaits to take you back to the top of the tracks. The chairlift was similar to what you would find in a ski resort (in fact, the whole attraction was kind of like what you would see at a ski resort!), and the chairs would swing around behind you and scoop you up before you pulled down the bar and then enjoyed the views back up to the top.

We saw a few rabbits playing in the grass below us as we made our way back up, and we watched other people zooming around on the tracks as we passed above them. Once at the top, we got in the queue again and this time went down the intermediate track. This one was much faster and a lot more twisty, and we both really enjoyed it! There were not quite as many people there to slow us down this time, so we were soon back at the bottom and back on the chairlift. Our third luge ride was down the advanced track, which was even faster and at one point had us both fly off our seats as we went over a large bump! We did, however, pass a woman that had crashed on one of the bends, and there were a few people around tending to her injuries, which looked pretty serious – they were not sure if she had broken anything. We think that the advanced track was then closed as once we were back at the top, this was closed off.

As we both loved the intermediate track, we rode this one again for our fourth go, before ending on the scenic track, as this would give us the longest ride. It also turned out to give us a very wet ride, as the rain decided to make a showing just as we were waiting for our final ride! This also made the track very slippery, and we were quite glad that we had gone on the tamer of the three tracks as our brakes didn’t seem to work at all in the rain! It did mean that we had a faster ride, but there were a few bends where we almost both came off our luges because we couldn’t slow down!

We took one final trip up the chairlift, and then made our way back to the gondola, where we were both completely soaked, and feeling quite cold! Once back in our room, we cranked up the heater, turned on the electric blankets, put on our pj’s and had a cosy night watching a film before an early night, as we had another busy day ahead!

We left the room the following morning at 8:30am and headed for ‘Rotorua Canopy Tours’, where we had booked the 9am tour which would have us zip-lining through the nearby native forest for the next three hours. We parked up and checked in, and were joined by eight other people in our group. We were introduced to our guides – Gary and Alex – and were each given some very fetching waterproof clothing to keep us warm and dry. We were then geared up with our harnesses, helmets and various metal devices that would attach us to the wires and ropes, and then all piled into the minibus that would take us to the forest.

On the way, we had the usual cringe-worthy icebreaker speeches (including having to answer what super power we would like to have, and having to make the sound of our favourite or least favourite animal) but it had us all laughing and raring to go! Once at the forest, we had a short walk of around 200m before we reached the first platform. Once all up there, the guides went through a few safety issues and explained how things would work, then Alex made her way down the zip line ready to meet us one-by-one at the other end. They asked for a volunteer to go first and Emma happily stepped forward, completely fearless as this is completely her thing!

Gary hooked her up to the zip line then she was good to go! At the start of each zip line there were a few steps which basically lead to nowhere – you just walked off them and let the rope take you the rest of the way! Emma zoomed her way down the wire and was met by Alex at the other end, who then transferred her onto a rope that was secured to the tree and the platform. Craig was next, and in a few seconds he joined Emma on the other platform, and we were both feeling pretty exhilarated and eager for more! We had to wait for the others to join us before we could continue, and it was clear that some were a little more apprehensive about stepping off the stairs to nowhere than we were – we overheard one of them comparing it to walking the plank, ha ha!

We took our camera with us so we got a few photos throughout the tour, but one of the guides also had a camera, and he encouraged us to strike random poses over the course of the morning. There were six zip lines altogether and two swing bridges – one of them that didn’t have any sides and we were encouraged to just hang over the side and strike a pose for the camera. All of the zip lines were really fun, the highlight probably being the fourth one which was 220 metres long and 22 metres above the ground. We would usually spin around as we went across them, which gave us great panoramic views of the forest around us. The tour company, as well as running the canopy tours, are largely involved in conservation of the forest, and a short part of the tour involved them explaining and demonstrating how they are trying to save the native trees and birdlife that are being destroyed by various mammals that have taken over the forest. Unfortunately, there are several species of rats, possums, stouts and other small mammals that were introduced many years ago to New Zealand that have slowly being destroying the wildlife here – there are actually no native mammals in New Zealand at all, and these introduced mammals are largely responsible for the extinction of over 40% of New Zealand’s native birds. The tour group have therefore started a trapping program, and hope to increase the numbers of native birdlife and protect the trees. Most of the wildlife in New Zealand is not found anywhere else in the world, so essentially, when it’s gone, it’s gone for good, so it’s pretty essential that they protect and preserve this as much as they can. This means that it is necessary to kill as many of these introduced mammals as they can, but the guides demonstrated the humane traps that they use, which would kill the animal instantly and mean that it would cause it zero suffering.

Anyway, back to the fun stuff! We were encouraged on the final zip line to try and do something a bit different, so Craig went for the flat-on-his-back-starfish approach (didn’t get a picture unfortunately as Craig had the camera), whilst Emma decided to go upside down! We were pretty gutted that we had come to the end of the tour and we’re definitely keen to do this again in the future, it was such a fun morning! Once everyone was back on the ground, we made our way back to the minibus and then back to the tour office. We took off our gear, thanked the guides for a fantastic morning and then drove back to the motel for a rest for a while.

Later that afternoon after relaxing for a couple of hours and having some lunch, we drove to the Polynesian Spa, where we would spend the rest of the afternoon and some of the evening in the Lake Spa pool. There were a few different types of pools there and the lake spa was the more expensive, but it was a lot less busy and included a few extra things like towels and heated loungers, and was also in a nicer setting overlooking Lake Rotorua. Once we had changed into our swimming gear, we grabbed a couple of towels and headed out to the pools. As these are naturally heated, we did have to get used to the smell of sulphur which was very strong, but it didn’t take too long, thankfully! There were four pools ranging from 36 to 42 degrees Celsius, and we went first to the cooler of the four pools. Of course, it was still lovely and warm, and we were soon relaxing in the water and taking in the views of the lake.

We spent the next few hours trying the various temperatures of the other pools, finding that the 42 degrees pool was a little too hot – your skin would literally turn bright pink after a few minutes in there! You wouldn’t think that 2 degrees would make much difference but the 40 degrees pool was much more bearable! Emma also sat on one of the heated loungers for a little while whilst Craig stayed in one of the pools. As it got darker and the temperature outside dropped, it was so nice to be so toasty and warm whilst enjoying the views of the lake and the stars.

By around 7:30pm, we had done all of the relaxing we could take (lol) and headed back inside to the changing rooms, where we both had a rinse in the showers and got changed back into our clothes. Once back at the motel, we each had a proper shower to wash the sulphur smell out of our hair and skin, then packed up our cases ready to move again the next morning.

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