We spent three nights and two days in Rotorua, on New Zealand’s North Island.
In some ways, it’s the North Island’s answer to Queenstown; an attractive town on a beautiful lake with outdoor thrill attractions and plenty for tourists to do. The surrounding mountains aren’t as high, but the views are still spectacular.
Queenstown bills itself as “The Adrenalin Capital of the World.” While Rotorua isn’t quite that, it also offers its share of thrill rides, plus tall redwood trees (imported from California as seedlings) and opportunities to experience Maori culture. And, it’s warmer. So it was a worthwhile stop.
Downtown Rotorua was neat, clean, and charming.
We had no trouble finding places to eat in Rotorua. Eat Street is a one-block pedestrian mall with nothing but restaurants. When we took this picture in mid-morning, it was deserted. At dinner time, it was bustling. There were plenty of other dining options in town as well.
Not far from Eat Street, Kuirau Park provided a lovely urban oasis … and the smell of sulphur from a bubbling mud pond. Note the muddy gray water in the photo below. The smell wasn’t strong, but we sometimes smelled sulphur as we walked around the downtown area several blocks away. And our clothes retained a hint of sulphur until the next time we washed them.
The mountaintop entertainment complex Skyline has locations in both Queenstown and Rotorua. Both offer a buffet restaurant with plenty of delicious food and commanding views of the town and lake below. Both also offer luge tracks and several other thrill rides, such as ziplines and hang-gliding.
This luge is not to be confused with the Winter Olympic sport, in which athletes ride sleds down an icy half-tube. This is go-karts without engines that one rides downhill on a winding paved track. We opted to try the luge at the Rotorua location. It offered more courses (5), and the Queenstown location recently had some safety issues with its chairlift.
Of the two of us, Dave is more the thrill-seeker and Jeff is more risk-averse. But as we often say about experiences during our travels, “It’s an adventure!” So in the spirit of adventure, Jeff agreed to try it. We purchased a 5-ride package for each of us.
Here’s Jeff, experiencing last-minute trepidation, coupled with the indignity of helmet-crushed hair.
Here’s an aerial view of Skyline’s luge courses, courtesy of Google Maps. The top is at the lower left; the bottom is at the upper right. Of course, this doesn’t convey the downward elevation change.
Here’s a video, taken from the chairlift that transported us from the bottom back to the top.
Here’s Jeff at the end of his first run, still in disbelief that he survived intact. Dave was delighted with the entire experience. At the end of the fifth run, Jeff was whooping with glee, too.
After our five luge runs, we made our way to the Stratosfare buffet restaurant. We arrived 15 minutes before the restaurant opened, so we celebrated being alive and uninjured and rewarded ourselves for our daring accomplishment by enjoying exceptionally delicious cocktails.
Jeff chose the Black Forest Delight, with vodka, raspberry and cherry liqueur shaken with strawberry puree and in-house-made chocolate milk. Dave chose the Stratosfare Kiwi, with vodka, fresh kiwifruit mix, and kiwifruit puree, topped with apple and kiwifruit juice.
Since we were the first people to arrive at the restaurant, we could take unobstructed photos of the buffet and the dining room. We took photos of each station. This photo shows about half of the buffet.
After dessert, our friendly and attentive server took this photo of us and the picturesque view we enjoyed throughout our meal.
Here’s another view of the town and the lake as we rode down the gondola at the end of our visit to Skyline.
Funny story: We rode a city bus from downtown Rotorua to Skyline, at the north edge of town. When we returned to the bus stop at 6:30, we discovered that the buses had stopped running at 6:00. So we walked three miles back to our rental apartment. It was a nice evening, and we walked off some of the calories we put on at the buffet. As we say, “It’s an adventure!”
The next day, we visited Te Puia. As the entrance sign indicates, it’s a Maori Arts & Crafts Institute, but it’s so much more. We witnessed a bubbling mud pool and erupting geysers, both caused by the geothermal energy below the earth’s surface in the Rotorua area. We also got to see three kiwi birds in a darkened room, simulating their nighttime habitat. (We couldn’t take pictures.)
We enjoyed watching a 30-minute Haka dance performance at the end of our tour.
We could have stayed an extra day and seen more of the attractions Rotorua had to offer, but we felt we had chosen the optimal experiences. If you visit New Zealand (as you should!), we recommend including Rotorua in your itinerary.