buttons abroad: adventure weekend in rotorua part 1

During our stay in Tauranga a few of us went to Rotorua for bit if an adventure long weekend. It was a wet weekend but seeing as all of us were from the UK we were use to the rain and we didn't let it stop us from having fun. 

Day 1

We started off early in the morning. We took the local bus service and our first stop was the Skyline Rotorua. We bought the skyline combo package so we got a gondola ride, 5 luge rides and 1 skyswing ride. We took the Gondala ride up to the top (to get to the luges you have to take the gondola ride) . At the top we stopped off to take a ride on the sky swing. Following the swing we had our luge rides which I have to say were really fun! The inner racer came out of me from somewhere! 

Once we were done with the luge rides we hopped back on to the bus and our next stop was agroventures. There are five activities available at agroventures and different package deals available, we decided to go for the triple bypass package. The three activities we chose to do were: 

1. Freefall xtreme

This is basically a wind tunnel. The free flight experience was amazing and I would definitely recommend to give this a go at least once to get the experience!  They have a large viewing area so your friends can watch and take pictures. It is rather funny to watch other people! 

2. Swoop

For this ride you need 2-3 people, your all put into like a sack thing. Then they slowly rise you up to a height of 40m, this is probably the scariest part because it makes you more nervous! Once you reach the height one of the assistants will give the signal and one of you, (in our case it was me) has to pull the cord which releases you and you fall close to the ground and swing right across, and then swing back and forth a couple of times. This was definitely the ride I enjoyed most. I preferred this to the sky swing earlier on in the day so if your only brave enough to try one, go for the Swoop! 

3.Shweeb

This is the world's one and only shweeb. So I would definitely give this a go if your there...even if it is just to say that you have been on it! In this ride your placed in a cycling pod which is linked to overhead rails, so instead of cycling on the ground your cycling on overhead rails...a future concept? who knows! Two Shweebs run at the same time so you get to race your mate which is good fun. You do 3 laps around the track and it is actually quite tiring, yours quads get a little bit of a workout. The ride is probably not for someone who is claustrophobic because your cooped up in your little pod! 

Last but not least we stopped off at Hells Gate. Rotorua is famous for its geothermal activity. Anybody who has visited will know what I mean when I say as soon as you enter the city you get a waft of sulphury smell and it never really goes away. A visit to Rotorua would not be complete without a visit to a geothermal park. Its completely different to any other experience, I felt like I was on the moon or something! Hells gates also houses kakahi falls, which is the largest hot waterfall in the southern hemisphere. 

Enjoy the pictures and come back next week to find out what we got up to on Day 2! 

Sita xoxo 

Skyline Rotorua

Riding up on the Gondola

The Sky Swing 

Freefall Xtreme 

Swoop

Shweeb 

Hells Gate

Kakahi falls 

Hells Gate 

Hells Gate

Hells Gate