We started our journey to Rotorua by rental car as early as 8am in the morning that lovely Sunday.Weather was a little cloudy,but no nasty drizzles seemed to be pouring down.As soon as we reached Rotorua,we headed to the city center for great bargains of souvenirs.There was something odd bout the smell that basically lingered around the air of that small town but nobody seemed to be disturbed by the awful smell except us.I guess their noses were immuned by the smell as they practically inhaled them every other day.
After souvenir hunting and lunch at McD,we headed to Rotorua's Skyline for a gondola ride.The view from the gondola was magnificent and as we reached the top of the hill,Ayah bought us tickets for a 3round of the exciting Luge ride.
Luge is a fun filled gravity ride on a 3 wheel cart.It is as similar as riding a go-cart but the thrilling part bout a luge is that you hafta ride it down the steep hill slopes with 3 different level of lanes that they provided.You need to build the skill of controlling the cart especially when encountering deathly narrow turns and steep slopes.You have no idea how panic I was as soon as I first luge ride commenced down the beginners lane!After awhile,I got used to the cart and totally enjoyed the whole 3 purchased rides!
Notice the Dalmatians helmet I was wearing?Apparently,my head was too small for the adults' helmet so I hafta settle for a child sized helmet =P
Started to get the hang of it.But I think the boy behind was trying to overtake me as I was a slow luge rider.
After every luge ride going down the hill slopes,all will be sent back up by this cable ride.
The excitement in Rotorua didn't just end there.We went on for a more thrilling activity which was the Swoop.The Swoop consists of specially designed harnesses where you are cocooned inside along with a maximum of another 2 of your friends/companies.
You will be winched 40meters sky high above Ngongotaha Stream and once you're up there,1 of you (in our case was Pasha) has to pull the ripcord once everything is ready.
By pulling the ripcord,you are releasing yourself to plunge towards the earth at 130kmph from the sky and you will be swinging up and down the highest swing ever until it finally stops.
Thrilling eh?It felt like all of my body organs had left the building when the first 40meters drop was made after releasing the ripcord.To adrenaline junkies out there,Swoop is highly recommended =D
After the swing,we walked around the Agroventures park area and it was surrounded by weird looking animals that you can hardly encounter randomly anywhere else.1 of them was the gigantic native bird called Emu.
Trust me when I said that the Emus are fond of cameras.The longer you hold a camera,the nearer they'll come to you.The Emu in the picture above came closer and closer towards us while we stood there waiting for our picture to be snapped.It scared the crap out of Ibu! =P
We drove back to Auckland after a long tiring day in Rotorua later that evening.All I can I say is that Rotorua rocks!=D
