Rotorua

Rotorua is probably the top tourist destination in the North Island, and for good reason. It’s got a lot to offer. Lots of Maori culture and history, nearly as many adventure activities as Queenstown, and it’s also a boiling and steaming geothermal hotspot. We came to Rotorua mainly for the Maori culture (actually to find some authentic souvenirs), but ended up taking advantage of everything else the area has to offer.

First, our digs for our 4 days in the North - a “Cruiza” campervan. We were hoping to “freedom camp”, which is basically to park your campervan wherever you feel like stopping for the night, usually a public park or some remote picnic spot, but it is officially illegal everywhere we went and even when we give it a go it was a bit too dark and creepy for us to get a good nights sleep. So, we ended up staying at holiday parks, which was cool because we could have a shower and make use of their kitchen and other amenities.

My friend Bjorn from river surfing was traveling around the North the same time as us, so we made plans to meet up in Rotorua for a couple days before he attempts to fly home to Sweden (I believe a volcano is doing its best to prevent that). Since we were all in tourist mode, we did what tourists do. First we walked around a public park right out of town to see all the geothermal features - bubbling pools of mud, steaming lakes, plumes of steam coming out of an inconspicuous little hole in the ground (of course we had to stick our finger in there and yes, it is really hot), and a foot soak in geothermally heated water.

Next we headed for some of the touristy activities. Steph had us both beat in a round of putt-putt, only to blow it all on the second-to-last hole, the “volcano.” She granted herself a ‘moral victory’. Next we were drawn to something called Agroventures. The name makes it sound like it is agriculture-based adventures, which is I think originally what it was - sheep shearing show, hay rides, and something called a dog & whistle performance were all on offer. But we were there for the non-agricultural stuff - mainly some kind of rollercoaster-type thing that we had seen on the video in the information center. Turns out this thing was called the Shweeb, which is where you get in this little pod that hangs on a rail track and pedal like a bike to make it go around. You get going surprisingly fast and swing almost horizontal around the turns. I thought it was going to be just a leisurely cruise only to find out this is a serious race, with records posted by age group as well as nationality. The operators kept telling us that we won’t break a minute the first race, and will have to go again to get close to the records, which I think was a bit of a ploy to get us to pay for a second run. They did seem genuinely surprised though when Bjorn and I both clocked in under a minute, me at 58.8 seconds and Bjorn at 58.6 (ugh - 2 tenths!). Still, our times were good enough to make us the record holders for our respective countries. That’s right, I am the American Shweeb champion!!

The other big attraction that caught our eye at Agroventures was the stationary freefall thingy - you know, where you jump over the top of a huge fan and it simulates a freefall like skydiving. This had Steph’s name written all over it. First they got her all kitted up in a really flattering jumpsuit and had her practice all the positions. Next she jumped on the fan for a minute and a half of flight! She did quite good, compared to some of the other people we saw do it. It was hilarious to watch since her face would get all distorted from the wind force and she screamed every time she flew up to the safety net on top.

After our time at Agroventures we made off for some more geothermal and Maori stuff. You had to pay for just about everything, even to look at a geyser, so we basically just drove around some. We did find a huge boiling mud pit where we were able to get some mud on a stick for an impromptu facial. Seriously, you can buy the exact same mud in souvenir shops all around New Zealand. We also went to a grove of redwood trees that were planted in the early 1900’s.

For the following morning, Bjorn had arranged for him and myself to go sledging with one of the local companies. Sledging, in case you forgot, is pretty much the same as river surfing only you use a big plastic “sledge”, which is more buoyant and gives more protection from shallow rocks than a body board would. The Waitaki River, which the company we went with both rafts and sledges, is much narrower and shallower than the Kawarau, so a sledge was definitely necessary. I kind of assumed we would tag along with one of their client trips, which is Class III rapids and supposedly not that great. Turns out, there was no sledging trip, so we would be tagging along with the rafting trip, which is Class III to Class V rapids! And we were the only ones sledging - the guides in the rafts could tell us the lines but the rest was up to us. I was pretty nervous upon hearing this, but after we got in the water it was all sweet. Their river is more of a pool-drop than ours, which means there are flat pools of calm water followed by a drop. And drop it did. We were dropping down waterfalls 2 or 3 meters in height before we reached the big one - a 7 meter drop that is a Class V! Basically I just kicked hard into it and held on for dear life. It actually wasn’t as bad as it looked. We had an awesome time and it was really good to experience a different river than the Kawarau.

Our last afternoon in Rotorua we drove around a bit more, did some more souvenir shopping, and drove back out to the river to show Steph where Bjorn and I had conquered. From there we have 2 more nights, which we decided to use by taking a long, scenic drive up towards Auckland through the Coromandel Peninsula. I’ll post something on that soon.

You may be a little confused about the timing of this post. We are actually sitting in the airport and leave in about 45 minutes to start our journey home, but are trying to catch up with these posts. It’s such a hassle to get internet in this country! It’s even a hassle to find somewhere to plug in the laptop. We’ll be home on the evening of the 23rd - our first stop after the airport is the Chick-fil-a Dwarf House in Hapeville (461 North Central Avenue). We will be meeting some family and friends there about 7pm if anybody wants to come say hi!