Day 137 - Rotorua, New Zealand
Day 137 – 23rd October 2005 +12:00 GMT Total Miles 27263
Had some coffee in the hostel then we headed out we drove a couple of miles up the road to the skyline gondola. Here you buy a ticket for the gondola which then takes you up to the top of the mountain and at the top the have a whole range of activities.
Gondola to the top of the mountain
Me on the Gondola
We decided we would spend the day on the luge. They have 3 tracks totaling 5 km, a scenic track, a intermediate track and an advanced track.
The Luge Tracks
You race down on specially designed luge’s where you sit up and they have a unique breaking system, you basically pull the handlebars towards yourself to slow down.
Jill and I on the Chairlift with our Luge's
Our ticket allows us to have 5 goes so we started on the Scenic rack which is just over 2km, then we had a go on the Intermediate and then the advanced. Then we stopped for some lunch in the café. Here you get spectacular views of Lake Rotorua.
The view from the top
The view from the top
After lunch we had another go on the scenic track and we stopped to take photos of each other and then a final go on the Intermediate track.
Me on Luge
Jill on Luge
This took 5 hours to complete and thoroughly enjoyable. We then drove back into the centre of Rotorua and stopped at Kuirau Park which is full of Geothermal activity.
Kuirau Park
There is bubbling mud everywhere and huge steaming lakes of boiling water. We walked around the park and looked at all the smoking sulphur outlets.
Bubbling Mud
Bubbling River
Me by a geo-thermal area
Kuirau Park
Kuirau Park
Kuirau Park
We then went shopping and Jill and I cooked a vegetarian curry and then we sat and chatted to other guests, I played a few games of Chess against a Yugoslavian guy and lost, then he told me he normally plays for money. I phoned home to catch up on any news and then called it a night.
Had some coffee in the hostel then we headed out we drove a couple of miles up the road to the skyline gondola. Here you buy a ticket for the gondola which then takes you up to the top of the mountain and at the top the have a whole range of activities.
Gondola to the top of the mountain
Me on the Gondola
We decided we would spend the day on the luge. They have 3 tracks totaling 5 km, a scenic track, a intermediate track and an advanced track.
The Luge Tracks
You race down on specially designed luge’s where you sit up and they have a unique breaking system, you basically pull the handlebars towards yourself to slow down.
Jill and I on the Chairlift with our Luge's
Our ticket allows us to have 5 goes so we started on the Scenic rack which is just over 2km, then we had a go on the Intermediate and then the advanced. Then we stopped for some lunch in the café. Here you get spectacular views of Lake Rotorua.
The view from the top
The view from the top
After lunch we had another go on the scenic track and we stopped to take photos of each other and then a final go on the Intermediate track.
Me on Luge
Jill on Luge
This took 5 hours to complete and thoroughly enjoyable. We then drove back into the centre of Rotorua and stopped at Kuirau Park which is full of Geothermal activity.
Kuirau Park
There is bubbling mud everywhere and huge steaming lakes of boiling water. We walked around the park and looked at all the smoking sulphur outlets.
Bubbling Mud
Bubbling River
Me by a geo-thermal area
Kuirau Park
Kuirau Park
Kuirau Park
We then went shopping and Jill and I cooked a vegetarian curry and then we sat and chatted to other guests, I played a few games of Chess against a Yugoslavian guy and lost, then he told me he normally plays for money. I phoned home to catch up on any news and then called it a night.
posted by Simon at 4:11 PM
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