New Zealand - Rotorua - The Second largest Adrenaline Capital of NZ.

ExploringRTW

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9th - 13th January 2008

New Zealand - Rotorua - The Second largest Adrenaline Capital of NZ. :D

Rotorua is also the second largest adrenaline capital of New Zealand (with Queenstown on the South Island being the first) and as a result, becomes what I have termed as an ‘Adult Playground’. :D

In one of our first afternoons after the Doctors visit, we go off to see the various adrenaline sports on offer. The first stop is a Luge that is run on 3 concrete tracks. The longest track being about 2.5km, the shortest being about 1km(but very fast !) To reach the beginning of the track we had to take a Gondola. That done, poor Sylvia has to settle for watching, drinking coffees and taking photos-It was like she had to be Mum for an hour or so. :( The Luge was fun and as dangerous or as placid as you wanted it to be. :augie I had 5 runs and had myself up on one wheel a few times going round the corners. :D There were quite a few children and parents about so I had to be a bit careful, but it was still well fast enough and good fun. :D

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It was good fun :D I look a bit like Rodney (at 27..ish) when he won the painting competition for the under 14 year olds. :D

Before arriving in New Zealand I’d wanted to take a roll in a Zorb (a huge transparent ball you roll around in down a fairly steep slope.) but I was disappointed to find that the longest ride lasted about 30 seconds(at maximum) and cost $NZ47 !! :yikes It was too expensive for me for that amount of time so we drove along to the ‘Agrodome‘.:eek

We looked around at their sports and saw a bizarre race called the ‘Schweeb’ which were two eliptically shaped plastic tubes suspended side-by-side from an over-head track. The ’rider’ lays on their back in the tube on what resembled the lay-out of a recumbent bicycle. This also was $NZ47, lasted around 1 minute, and I just couldn’t see the point of it :nenau. We looked too at a very stumpy jet boat called an ’Agro-jet’ which was a very aggressive jet attached to a very small boat that charged with phenomenal acceleration around a small man-made lake/pool :D. It was impressive to watch but it too was $NZ47 for about 5 mins. :(

I saw a couple of Asian guys walking towards the Schweeb and prepare for a race around the circuit. I wasn’t ready to be impressed BUT boy, what a laugh. :D:thumb2:D These tubes go up and down on the tracks, swing out on the corners and travel very fast. These guys were in their early 20’s and racing each other. The winner made 1 min, his friend, 1 min 6 secs. I was hooked. No more of this $NZ47/min moaning - I wanted a go :D !! The guys running it were English and genuinely enthusiastic which was really refreshing and rubbed off on me. :thumb2 So I’m inserted into my tube, the riding style/gear change technique explained, and given a huge push off from the two guys.

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Getting set up in the Scweeb.

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I peddle like I’m never going to need my legs again. It was great & crazy all at the same time. :D The first lap went very well, and the second lap was looking good too until one of my feet slipped off the pedal :eek: and it took me about 3 or 4 seconds to get it back on. By the time I’d managed that, I’d lost some momentum. None-the-less, once rolling again, I still peddled as fast as I could. I finished in 1m 3secs.

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The big push-off ! The boys gave me a good start. :thumb2

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Pedaling like I didn't need my legs again.

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An example of the cylinder swinging out - Not the best swing for a photo but the best we have.

The English guys were (or appeared :rolleyes: ) quite impressed that I’d gone so quickly, stating that I would have been nearer to 1m had my foot not slipped. I loved it against all my preconceptions and was chuffed with myself for a while after.

However, my legs hadn’t seen so much action recently and demanded the blood from my face for themselves. I was ok but knew I was out of shape. :eek:

After that, we head off back to our campsite for the evening.

The following day we visit New Zealands answer to 'Old Faithful', more of which can be read in the previous entry. After that we return to the area of the Agrodome and I take 1 hour ride with ‘Pure dirt bikes’ in the afternoon as part of a rafting/sledging/biking package. The biking aspect of this lasting around 1 hour and costing about $NZ120(£48).

When I arrived, the owner had just taking a group of complete novices out for an hour and now it was just he & I for the next hour. :D Once he’d established my experience level and I’d selected my preferred bike, a Yahama 230, we went tearing off up a steep hill.

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I found one that fits ! :rolleyes: ....

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...but settled for the Yamaha 230 :D

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The view from the top of the hill :augie - who cares ? :D - lets go riding again !! :D

I had a great time, we covered a lot of different terrains on the 6,000 Hectare farm he was using. My highlights were manouvring through a forest on some fairly wet mud and chasing him across a recently cut hay field at around 80km’s. :D Grinning from ear to ear :D, we return to poor but patient Sylvia and I have a beer with her and the owner, Mike, at the end of his and our day, whilst we all enjoy the sun.:D

In the morning Sylvia did some washing after a late start, with me still doing the pegging bit !!. We then had to rush into town to grab some food before I took off for an afternoon of white water sledging & rafting whilst Sylvia went to a Maori culture centre. Sylvia purchased her ticket for her afternoon and was soon on the bus to Te Pui, the cultural site.

Whilst waiting after Sylvia had left, I’d seen a bus bearing the name of the company I’d booked with, going in the opposite direction. :eek: I contemplated how many buses and operations they had going and surmised I may have been missed :rolleyes: and so rang the company. “Ohhh, I thought you were coming here yourself-no worries-stay there-I’ll get him to come back for you“, which he duly did about 10 mins later.

At 48 :rob:rob I thought myself to be in the minority for these type of adventures but was pleased to see a couple in their late 50’s up for the white water rafting. :D

After arriving, there were a few who yet had to pay for their afternoon & I was a little surprised to find that I was one of them as I thought I‘d already done so over the phone yesterday morning. My bill was $NZ85 more than I thought based on a 'deals' brochure I’d used to book this along with the dirt biking. It was advertised as along the lines of $180 with sledging, and rafting $205 which I read as an inclusive statement as opposed to $NZ180 with sledging or $NZ205 with rafting. I was not happy as this was clearly not written correctly. The girl agreed there was room for mis-interpretation but wouldn’t move on the price as there was no-one there to give her permission. :rolleyes:I was angry but wanted to do both and so had to agree to pay. Not a good start. :spitfire

The introduction for sledging was as you might have expected for a potentially very dangerous sport. “You will spend most of the time with your head under water” was one small expression that sticks in my mind ! :D :yikes :D There were 4 of us, the other three in their late 20’s/early 30’s and they also looked very worried as well. :eek:

After the briefing, we were kitted up with wet suits, fins which looked like they’d been amputated from a very large duck, a crash helmet & buoyancy aid and a sledge. We then had to carry the sledge to the river which was about 10 mins way. The sledges aren’t heavy-heavy but heavy enough for a 10 min walk, especially when part of that walk is through a narrow walk-way cut into rock. We eventually pass our sledges over a fence to our instructor and climb over ourselves.

Once prepared, the launch into the river consisted of you locking your arms into the board, pressing its base into your abdomen and jumping off the river-side into the river…:yikes ...yes I did say 48. Sally-Ann, our only woman sledgie, was elected to jump second after our first guide. Her jump went well and we were all relieved that it was actually possible to do it without impailing yourself with the board:). I went next and the others followed suit. The training for encountering the rapids was basically to turn your head to the side (so that your face isn’t smashed into the sledge as you crash down) and go over the edge. The first rapids were my worst with a deluge of water depriving me from air for a few seconds whilst being battered by the river. I honestly wondered at this point wether I’d bitten off more than I could chew. :eek:

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Rapid formation - I'm in the number 2 spot.

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This is the rapid surfing where you point yourslef back up-stream and are pinned down by the water.

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These shots was taken between 2 surf sessions, and yes, I am as knackered as I look in the second !.

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But went back for another surf none-the-less. :D

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Sally-Anne gets a little help from a friend to experience some rapid surfing.


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Our team. The Stoic look was to make us look tough :rolleyes: - All of us went on to to the Rafting together afterwards.

We continued and encountered a number of more rapids and also did some rapids surfing where you kick your way back into the downstream part of the rapid whilst pointing upstream. If you get it right, the current flow pins you down to one point with little effort. The guys all have a few goes and find it funny. :D Sally-Ann though was not so keen as she’d already had one capsize and found it unpleasant. We understood, however our Instructor took her out into it and helped her experience it “safely“. :thumb2

The whole trip was over dissapointingly quickly after about 30-40mins, which we understood was because we’d had so few problems understanding how to use the sledges.

30 mins later we’d had a short break, changed out of our wet-suits, and we’re being briefed for white water rafting. Our “Captain”, Elby, was a character and made many black jokes as we prepared and waited at various points before and during our rafting. The highlight of our trip was to be a 7m waterfall :yikes which is the highest commercially rafted in the world :yikes.

Within the first few minutes we’d already dropped down through 2 waterfalls of not inconsiderable height and were all a little anxious as to how 7m would look and feel. Soon enough we were there and invited to stand up in the raft to see how far down the 7m looked. We were also warned that the boat may be pinned down by the weight of the water, that it may capsize and what to do etc. :eek For waterfalls you basically have to tuck yourself as tightly into the foot section of the raft as possible by dropping down to get as much protection from the water as possible and then hang on to your paddle and holds as tight as you can. We go over the edge and the raft becomes near vertical(as you can see in the photos). The pinning down didn’t occur in the end and we were one of the few boats not to be totally submerged at the bottom of the fall.(I think this was as we were lighter than the other rafts having one light-weight woman and less 'crew' than the others.)

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The start of our rafting.

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The big one - The 7m drop.

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Some silly anctics - standing up whilst go through some rapids.

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Rapid surfing is also possible with a raft......

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...which was also a lot of fun.

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We had a lot of fun on this trip. Our “Captain” had us standing up over one rapid, and surfing on two others. We all had a good laugh and a great trip. :thumb2

If you’ve never tried it before, give it a go. It really isn’t that dangerous if you use a good operator and gives plenty of smiles.:D:D:D

Mike
 


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