Crazy Kiwi Experience in Rotorua

Rotorua is a relatively small town (around 60,000 inhabitants) in the North Island of New Zealand and it is famous for its geothermal activity. It is also the centre of Maori language and culture in New Zealand and you will see many Maoris around. Also, like Queenstown in the South Island, Rotorua offers many action-packed activities.

It is perfectly possible to spend several days in Rotorua without getting bored for a single second, especially if you like extreme sports.

First of all, you should start your visit with the Agrodome Theme Park where you will be able to witness sheep shearing and learn all about these cute but stupid creatures. Adrenaline-junkies will love Zorbing (rolling down a hill in an inflated rubber ball), Swooping and Bungee-Jumping.

After this, when you are high with adrenaline buzzes, you could go to Rotorua Museum where you will learn about Maori Culture and Handicrafts. The exhibits are astounding and definitely worth seeing to witness the skills of Maori craftsmen. You can also visit a Marae (Maori house of visitors) where Maori women will explain you all about the Maoris still living in New Zealand while showing you their sewing skills.

The main thermal areas of Rotorua are Whakarewarewa, Wai-O-Tapu, Waimangu and Hell’s Gate. However, these areas are paying sites and if you want to see the geothermal wonders of the region, head towards Taupo where you can visit Wairakei geothermal area for free.

When the adrenaline high starts to dissipate, you could get another rush with jetboat rides, white-water rafting and skydiving in the area. Or if you want a more quiet way of ending your stay in the town, you can have a ride on the Skyline gondola to have views on the city.

Rotorua is as much fun for kids as it is for adults. Do not miss it!

Quick Tips:

- www.rotoruanz.com is a great site with all the information you need about Rotorua. It contains the list of activities, and you can even book some of them on it.

- The Rotorua Information and Travel office in Fenton Street is helpful and can arrange packaged activities for you including transportation. You will find plenty of folders to bring back home as a souvenir of your adrenaline-packed activities.

- If you intend to zorb in the Agrodome (see my review), bring dry clothes with you and a towel especially if you do the 'Hydro Zorb'. You will save 2 NZ dollars.

- Rotorua, like any New Zealand city providing outdoor activities, has many shops where you can buy great outdoor gear. If you have trouble finding good stuff for hiking/trekking (or just sportswear) in your home country, buy it while you are in New Zealand. Prices are decent even though it is not as cheap as you would expect it to be.

- While in New Zealand, you should not be vegetarian. Meat is incredibly tasty (if you have been to Argentina before, you will know what I am talking about), and meat pies are delicious and a cheap way to feed yourself. Since there are 80 million sheep in the country, you will have ample opportunity to taste lamb meat. In my opinion, the best meat is found in New Zealand (and Argentina).

- If you intend to do only one bungee-jump while in New Zealand, I would recommend you to go to Queenstown instead as you can choose between one to three jumps in better surroundings. (In 2002, I paid 249 NZD for 3 jumps in Queenstown, one of them being 134m high.)

- You do not greet Maoris with a handshake or a hug, but with noses touching each other three times (if I remember well).

Best Way To Get Around:

Rotorua is about two hours from Auckland and one hour from Taupo and it is very easy to go there from both cities (by car, bus, train, or plane). There is a domestic airport close to the city centre with flights incoming from Auckland and Wellington among other New-Zealand cities. However, it is still best to use a coach or a train as this is cheaper.

The best way to get around in Rotorua is by bus (or shuttle bus) to visit its main attractions and by walk to go from your hotel to shops and restaurants. There are many shuttles from the Tourist Office to the main attractions in the area.

When you arrive in Rotorua, the first thing you should do is enquire at the Rotorua Information and Travel office in Fenton Street (city centre) about the various possibilities of transportation coupled with activities. It will cost you less money and some shuttles are free if you book a visit/activity before.

Kiwis are insatiable when it comes to extreme sports. Zorbing is a perfect example of a unique Kiwi experience. Just imagine getting into a huge washing machine and going down a hill at 50km per hour. This is ‘zorbing’.

Zorbing is a not so new sport that emerged in 1972 in Rotorua, next to the Agrodome (where you will learn everything you wanted about sheep).

When I arrived at the Agrodome Theme Park, the first thing I noticed was the huge inflatable rubber spheres rolling down a 200m straight track at full speed with one or two people in it and the empty spheres being towed uphill on a special escalator.

After enquiring about the options of zorbing and the prices, I learnt that I had the choice between ‘dry zorbing’ or ‘wet zorbing’. With dry zorbing, I could get into a sphere, and be strapped while going downhill. ‘Wet zorbing’ (or Hydro Zorb) is a bit more extreme: two full buckets of (more or less) warm water are poured into the sphere and you are not strapped.

Since it was not too cold that day (April 2002), I chose to be a zorbonaut of a Wet Zorb. I was then asked to jump into the Zorb through a small hole and stand up. If I could manage to stand up and run all the way downhill, I would have a second ride for free and win a T-Shirt.

However, as soon as the sphere started rolling down, I fell and felt completely disoriented for the whole ride which merely lasted for twenty to thirty seconds. I could only feel water around me. A perfect washing machine experience! No second ride for free, nor no free t-shirt but a fun experience!

I heard that after 2002 (I was there in April 2002), they added a new zigzag track (shame I was not there to try it).

You can zorb anytime between 9am and 5pm (8pm from December to March) for 45 NZD (+ 2 NZD to borrow clothes and a towel if you choose the wet zorb). To get to the Agrodome, there is an hourly shuttle service from the Tourist Office in Rotorua. Kids can also zorb on a flat track in a smaller sphere for 10 NZD.

Not especially cheap for such a short experience but overall a lot of fun and laughs! And I would definitely do it again!

If you think sheep all look the same, wait until you have seen the Agrodome sheep show. Until I went to New Zealand, the sheep heaven (80 million sheep, 20 sheep per inhabitant!), I did not even know there were more than one species of sheep!

So if you are interested in the inhabitants of New Zealand (after all, the human species is a minority there), go and visit the Agrodome of Rotorua, a very popular tourist spot in Rotorua. In the Agrodome Theme Park, there are three daily shows (at 9:30am, 11am, and 2:30pm) where you will learn everything you wanted about Dorset Horns, Drysdales, Coopworths, New Zealand Romneys, etc. The show costs 22 NZD and there is a 50% discount for children.

The show which lasts about one hour is not only a mere introduction to the 19 most popular sheep brands of New Zealand, but it is a lot of fun watching it and you can even be part of it. First of all, the show starts with the sheep coming on stage and a sheep-shearer telling you all about the animals while sheep dogs jump on them. You will know whether a particular kind of sheep produces good wool or not, or whether its meat is tender or not. The cutest for me was the Black Romney, a black sheep full of wool from head to tail (I do not even want to know if it is eatable or not, it is way too cute to be eaten!)

Then, a cow enters on stage and someone from the public (usually someone who has never put a single foot in a farm), will be asked to hand-milk it (usually without much success). A good laugh for everyone! Once the cow has been milked, the milk is used to feed lambs (the public can join the milk-feeding after the show).

Then, it is the sheep-shearing stage and I understand why it is so hard to shear these animals. Sheep, even though they are stupid and quiet animals, do not like being sheared and will show it. The shearer has to immobilize the sheep with brutal force and stop it from moving while he uses the clippers.

After the show, it is possible to go behind the scenes and hug lambs or have a picture of you taken with a Dorset Horn (a ram). I did both since it is not everyday that you can approach such creatures when you live in the city!

To get there, an hourly shuttle service is available from the Tourist Office of Rotorua to the Agrodome.

A family fun experience not to miss while you are in New Zealand!

Located on a volcanic plateau, Rotorua is not only famous for its adrenaline-packed activities, but also for its thermal sources and geysers. If you want to enjoy a rest between two extreme sports activities, go and visit the earth in action in one of the numerous geothermal areas around Rotorua. Whakarewarewa thermal village is probably most popular place to go but it is not free (25 NZD). Instead of paying to see a natural event, I went to Wairakei Tourist Park, near Huka Falls (between Rotorua and Taupo) to admire bubbling ponds of hot mud, shooting geysers and other geothermal activities.

Wairakei Tourist Park houses the Craters of the Moon, an amazing 50,000 square metres geothermal field. The first thing I noticed when arriving there were the fumes and the strong smell of sulphur (bring a handkerchief with you to put on your nose if you cannot stand this smell.)

I could admire bubbling craters, mud pools, and steam vents along with sulphur rocks. The wide pathway through the geothermal area was well designed with explanations throughout the way, even though I had to breathe the sulphur fumes most of the time because of a bad wind. Some days, the fumes are so poisonous that the staff guide visitors through another way to bypass them. There are some elevated viewing platforms from where I could take panoramic photos. I was quite surprised to notice a thermal resort just behind the mud pools. How can tourists stand this smell the whole day without having their lungs irritated by them?

The most impressive sight for me was probably the bubbling mud ponds even though I saw several geysers erupting and shooting hot water. The bubbling ponds make you realise that the earth remains powerful, the nature is still in control. The incredible forces of earth are at work there: in the 1950, there was little thermal activity in the area but when the Wairakei Power Station (2km from there) was built, it used underground water which resulted in increased hot pressure in the earth (because of a lack of water to cool it down) and the increase of geothermal activity. Soon, geysers, mud ponds appeared and their number has increased ever since.

Rotorua area hosts one of the few visible zones of earth activity in the world, so if you are interested by the wonders of Mother Nature, this is something not to be missed. Also, you can grab the opportunity and relax in one of the numerous spa resorts in the region. But first of all, visiting Wairakei will not cost you a single cent (if you head towards Taupo after Rotorua) and it is certainly as good as any other thermal area in New Zealand.

During my three-week tour of New Zealand, I decided to be crazy like a Kiwi and experience as many adrenaline rushes as I could in a short while. Rotorua was my first stop after Auckland and I was not disappointed with the many activities it had to offer. Bungee-jumping was one of these options.

Not the most picturesque bungy in New-Zealand (Queenstown, in the Southern Island has three more bungys to offer in stunning surroundings), the 43m (142 feet) Rotorua Bungy in the Agrodome Theme Park was nonetheless a good introduction to an adrenaline-packed experience.

Not especially cheap (120 NZD for the jump including photos of you jumping), but definitely worth every cent if you are an adventurous spirit looking for extreme sensations. If you want to try only one jump, it is best to go to Queenstown if you have the opportunity to go there.

First of all, I had to sign a release form (in case I had an accident during the jump, the staff would not be held responsible), then I was explained how it would work for me. No doubt was I feeling extremely nervous as it was my first jump. Since I was trying to cure my fear of heights, I tried to overcome this fear by jumping (it worked for a short while, then my fear of heights came back as strong as ever). The staff were extremely friendly and reassured me; they have a real gift about reassuring the most nervous people and they would be good counsellors if ever they decided to change jobs!

I was strapped on the legs and harnessed on the chest (in case the strap on the legs broke during the jump) and told that at five, I would have to jump. 43 metres do not seem high, but knowing that I was about to jump, it seemed like hundreds of metres to me. I approached the platform and stood still while the staff were counting…

One, two, three, four, five… I never knew how it happened, but I jumped in despite of all the warnings my brain was giving me… The adrenaline rush was awesome. A real boost of joy into my brain, as if I was given a happy pill. I could not help but laugh. I kept my eyes open during the whole duration of the jump which did not last more than five seconds (but for me it seemed much longer than that).

Then, I felt the elastic rope. In a matter of seconds, I was not going down anymore but up, bouncing up and down until it stopped. It was over… I was still alive; I had not had a heart attack nor had crashed in the small pond below me.

I knew I wanted to do it again and again…The adrenaline rush had been so powerful I remained high for 24 hours, smiling non-stop. Some people burst into tears and keep crying for hours. As for me, I kept laughing for no reason for several hours afterwards.

This was the first of my four jumps in New Zealand (I did the three other jumps in Queenstown, each in a different place). I would do it again anytime, even if I am somewhat wiser now…