For a joint 90th birthday with my Dad’s 60th and my 30th, we decided to go to Rotorua over Labour Weekend for some time away with my Parents and my Sister.
While around the Lakes I tried to catch a trout but I was unsuccessful, I did see one guy catch one and saw a few hanging around.
Rotorua Duck Tours
I was very lucky for my Sister to get my Father and me passes to go on the Duck Tour around Rotorua. The Ducks are modified DUKW amphibious WWII vehicles that transported goods to beachheads, they were too slow for troop transfers.
The Tour was well worth it and would highly recommend it, we got a great understanding of the area which I did not know about before. We saw the general area where the Pink and Terraces were and how the mountain was giving off warning signs days before the eruption.
A short video giving some idea of the Duck going at full throttle towards the beach, keeping in mind that the originals did not have a roof.
It is a beautiful area around the Rotorua Lakes and I cannot think of a better way to see them.
Rainbow Springs
Rainbow Springs was a very cool experience, we went on their log flume ride the “Big Splash”. If you go on this I would recommend not sitting right at the front as you will get quite wet.
When we first got in they took a photo of us and added some Kiwi into it, this fooled quite a few of our Facebook friends. There were some massive trout in the pools, but knowing me I still would not be able to catch one. There was a night-time Kiwi experience in which we tried to see them but they did not come up in time for us to see them, it looked like a very nice natural enclosure for them. The bird enclosures were very nice, we had a very friendly Kea.
The Luge
While it was relatively expensive to go on The Luge I found it very enjoyable. We just did 5 trips which was enough.
On one run down the expert track, I passed a family and started to get some abuse from the Mother. I can only assume thought it was her son who came hurtling past because as she saw me she stopped.
It was a great weekend away and I could quite happily own a lakefront property.
Until next time
Parriehunter