Luge and Hotpools

It turns out that there was no need to set an alarm to wake up, as I was awake just before 07:00 anyway. I went into the kitchen to sort myself out a cup of tea and some breakfast and was soon joined by Eddie and Jessica, who looked a lot more refreshed than yesterday.

While I sat and had my breakfast and played with my gadgets to get everything ready for the day, the kids got themselves something to eat and drink and played on their Nintendo Switch. I’m not normally much of a morning person, but it was nice to have a bit of time before the day kicked off, and the kids were good company and quite happy to sort themselves out.

By 08:00 everybody else was up too. Dad, Jo and Mich joined us, and we were on the road heading towards our first stop of the day in Rotarua.

We split up into two groups: those who wanted to go down the luge (me, Mich, Nick and Eddie), and those who didn’t (Ems, Dad, Jo and Jessica). The luge party joined the queue get tickets and take the gondola to the top of the luge run (note to self: book ahead online next time to avoid the queue).

We opted for a 3-ride ticket, which would allow us to try each of the main routes. As we had plans for the rest of the day, we didn’t want to get too many luge passes but it was so much fun I could have easily gone down another 10 times!

On the first go on the luge you are required to take the “green route”, which I guess is a bit more sedate and allows you to get used to the controls. There are a few turns, but the course is generally scenic and easy going.

At the bottom we parked our carts and got on the chairlift to take us up to the top for our next run. However, as soon as the chairlift left the station it halted in the air. We weren’t sure what was going on, but after a while there was a shout from behind us telling us that the lift will start again soon. After what felt like ages the ascent began and we finally made it to the top of Chairlift Top Station 2.

Taking the route up to Station 2 turned out to be a good idea though as the queues for the luge were shorter here, and the views from the top over Rotarua were amazing.

We had another couple of goes on different routes, stopped to get some copies of the photos that were taken at various points on the luge and returned via the gondola to meet up with the others.

After a packed lunch of sandwiches and crisps in the van we moved on to the Wai-o-Tapu Visitor Centre, which was about 1 hour away.

By the time we reached Wai-o-Tapu the sun was very high in the sky. I’m not sure if it was the heat from the sun, or from the hot pools, but we all needed to cool down a bit so fuelled up with ice creams in the visitor centre.

There isn’t very much cover at Wai-o-Tapu so the kids and Mich decided to return back to the visitor centre after completing the first of three sections of the walk around the hot pools.

The walk around the Geothermal Park is very varied and interesting: from hot mud pools, to sulphur covered caves and bright green mineral lakes. Due to the recent dry weather some of the pools and the waterfall were less full than my previous visit, but fascinating none-the-less.

After we completed the rest of the walk around the Geothermal Park, Jo enquired about a hot-water river that she had heard was nearby. This isn’t part of the official attraction, but just a short drive away. We stopped for a quick paddle in the river, known locally as Hot/Cold, and enjoyed the geothermal heated water.

The bathing point was easy to access just off the main road, although the steps down to the embankment were in need of repairs. There were a few other visitors, but the place wasn’t too busy. The water isn’t particularly safe though and there are warning signs about injesting it. It also smells a bit sulphorous so I wasn’t all that keen in submersing too much.

We returned to the van to start our journey back via Taupo. However, by this point we’ve all had a long first day in New Zealand and decided to cut the rest of the day a bit short and stop for food on the way home.

We took a break at Huka Falls and crossed over the footbridge to admire the powerful water flowing through the narrow gorge.

We stopped for our dinner at a McDonalds in Tokorua as it was getting quite late and we still had an hour to get back to Hamilton. I was quite excited to get a burger only available in New Zealand known as a Kiwiburger. No, it didn’t contain kiwi bird (or kiwi fruit), but it did have beetroot and egg. I wouldn’t say that it was bad, but I’m also not in a hurry to get another one!

When we got back to our accomodation at about 20:15 we were all exhausted after a fun and busy day and I think we were all in bed by 9pm.