First is the restaurant. There is a good view over the city and Lake Rotorua, and the food is a ‘Best of New Zealand Seafood Buffet and Grill". We were reminded of the wonderful restaurant on Bob’s Peak in Queenstown, but the view in Rotorua cannot compete. The buffet offers chowder, prawns, oysters, salmon, mussels, carved roast, steak, chicken and lamb cutlets. If all this sounds too much, the food court and café has a selection of snacks and meals from traditional bakery items to fish and chips, burgers and pies.

Next is the luge. This is claimed to be a ‘world-first’ and it certainly is fun. The luge is a gravity ride on 3-wheel carts which give you full control over your direction and speed. We tried the 2-kilometre scenic track, which winds through Redwood trees and has pull-over rest areas at locations suitable for photographs. There were two other options for those seeking more thrills. At the end of the ride you return uphill via a double-seater chairlift, which, in my opinion, rivals the gondola for enjoyment.

There is also a selection of other rides. The Skyswing provides a thrilling ride of up to 150 kph. The Venturer Simulator allows you to simulate super bikes, flights, a roller coaster, and more. Sharp shooters can try their hand at the Slug Target Range using pump action rifles. Mountain bike rides are offered with a choice of two tracks, neither involving uphill pedalling. That’s my style of riding.

For those looking for simpler pleasures, there is a good walking track with a gradual climb and descent from lookouts providing good views over the region. If even this seems too strenuous, there is a helicopter for flights over nearby attractions, which offers the chance to land on Mokoia Island.

Skyline operates 7 days from 9am.
Tel: (07) 347 0027; Fax: 647-348 2163; Email: enquiries@skylineskyrides.co.nz

You take the gondola up, which is quite nice, not exhilerating or anything, but a good chance to kick back and look at the views down the hill and out over the lake. Once up the top, there's the restaurant, a shop, a few other rides and attractions, like the Sky Swing and side-show style games, and then, of course, the luge.

You really need at least two goes on the luge. First-time riders must take the easy run first, to get used to the handling of the karts. Don't try to avoid this, as it's very useful. The next run up has some nasty turns in it, and there's no use trying to miss the easy run, unless you have a stamp on your hand, you're not allowed on anything higher than easy. And, you only get the stamp once you're at the bottom.

Anyway, you get a helmet to wear, and then some rough guidelines on steering and braking (generally, don't brake too hard, as you'll fly over the top), you're off and careering down the track! It's great fun, although don't get too carried away on the easy track, as some people do actually take their time on it! Once you've been down the easy track, you can progress to the next level. There is definately no slowing down on this one--I heard one hardened, frequent-luger complaining bitterly to one of the staff members that he was getting held up by all the novices on this track!

You use a ski lift to get back to the top, and, once you've used all your luge tickets up, you can either go for a walk and admire the view, or take the gondola back down.

At the top, there are a few other things to do including a luge ride which can also be your method of getting down the hill. You can however, get a chair lift back up from the bottom of the luge track to the top of the hill and do it again.

There is also a thrill ride called the "Big Swing" which appears to be sort of a horizontal bungee ride. It was fairly expensive and no one took it while we were there.

Cost was $12NZ for the basic ride up and down. Luge and big swing were extra.

Would recommend as something worth doing. Unless you are into the luge ride or planning on lunch, plan on spending less than an hour at the top.

There are various options as to coming down the hill. You can, of course come down in the gondola you came up in. You can also choose to go down in a a couple of luge type rides, one slow and scenic and the other faster and more for the thrill of the ride.