Kiwi Holiday
Wednesday December 21st
Today we got up early (shocking!) and had a huge day. We headed over to the Giant Redwood forest. They are California Redwoods. Apparently, they grow faster here than in CA. They smell absolutely wonderful. It is almost a sweet smell. There are several sulphur hot springs within the forest and when you go by them they smell like rotten eggs and cancel out the wonderful aroma of the redwoods.
Redwood Tree huggers!
Next we headed over to agroventures and spent most of the day experiencing what the Kiwi’s (New Zealanders) do on their holidays. We decided to taste their love for outdoor thrills-this is the place that invented bungy jumping after all. We saw some highland cows, ostriches and emu on the way to our stop. The first thing everyone did was schweeb. It is a recumbent bike on a monorail system. It is a lot of fun just by itself, but was envisioned as a public transportation system for cities.
Gabe vs Brody-schweeb
After some leg burning laps, we headed over for some swoop. Basically, it is bungy falling with swinging at the end! It is a total rush. They pull you up really high then one of you has to pull a rip cord and send you plummeting downward. Tara and Brody decided they didn’t want to go so Dad and Gabe went again with Mom. The freefall feeling you get when you pull the cord is thrilling and terrifying!
Dad and Gabe are getting strapped in for some swoop.
It seems higher when you are the ones being pulled up in a potato sack! We are getting nervous at this point!
Free Fallin'.
We then headed down the road to skyline Rotorua. You take a gondola ride up and a luge cart down (kind of like a go-cart/sled on wheels). We went twice, the first was the scenic route and everyone had a go. Next, the boys went again on the advanced track. They had a lot of fun and Gabe only crashed once with no major injuries.
Gabe and Brody zooming down a luge track . . . yeah, in retrospect, it wasn't such a great idea!
After our luge we changed into swimsuits and headed for some zorbing. Zorb is a giant ball filled with warm water. You squeeze in a narrow opening and then they push you down a large hill!
The kids all did it twice and mom and dad got to go once.
We then headed to our cottage for lunch and then a dip in our own hot springs pool. It was similar in temperature to a hot tub and the kids loved the slide.
After that, we headed to the Rotorua Museum and learned about the history of the area and the local Maori tribes. Brody really loved learning about the Maori brigade that fought in WW II, while Gabe and Tara enjoyed a scavenger hunt/activity sheet that had them looking all over the museum. On the way home we spotted some pukeko near a small pond. They are very common here but we all enjoy seeing the deep blue bird with the red beak and stripe. Across the street there was a smelly hot springs.
Whew! Today was wonderful but long, time for some sleep!
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