Rotorua Zorbtastic
Trip Start
Jul 12, 2006
1
103
230
Trip End
Jun 18, 2007
Rotorua,
New Zealand
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Bacteria mat on the water
. Once inside we got to see various songs and dances, all of which were great. I love the Haka, the faces they pull are brilliant. The park wasn't as good as the other places we'd been too but the Maori stuff really made up for it. The weather was good again today, really nice and sunny so we headed to the Agrodome, just out of town heading North. It's a place where you can bunjy go on a jet boat, visit a sheep farm or do other daft stuff like that, but for us, it was where were did Zorbing. We pulled up into the car park and could see the hill in front of us, at the top where huge plastic zorbing balls, one by one coming down the hill, at the bottom stood two men who ran to collect the ball, unzip the hole and release the bedraggled person inside who'd just come down the hill, inside the plastic ball along with a bucket of water! It was great. The weather was really sunny and warm so we decided to go for it. Luckily we'd got discount vouchers which meant we could hire a very fetching, quick drying t-shirt and shorts set plus a towel. Off we went to get changed then waited at the bottom to be collected in the little van. We'd opted for a single ride each so we could come down the zig-zag route at the side of the hill. You can come straight down the hill but because of weather conditions you could only do that with two people in the zorb today. So we decided for the longer, single, zig zag route
Bubbling water
. We were collected at the bottom and pilled into the van. The guy driving warned us it was a steep, bumpy ride to the top and he wasn't wrong. He drove so fast right up the hill over the bumps that you had to cling on for dear life in the back of the van. Personally I think he only drove like this because in the back of his van were lots of young ladies, in tight fitting t-shirts without bras. Lee told me not to be daft but I'm not kidding, the ride up the hill was so bumpy even my two poached eggs almost knocked me out so god knows what it must be like for the average girl's chest. Anyway, it's a very short ride before you're deposited at the top of the zorb run. You walk up to the platform and there are two channels, either side of the platform are zorb balls. The guy chucks a blue mat into the entrance, which is a circle about a foot wide all around, chucks a hosepipe in next to it, then tells me to take a running jump (not in a nasty way!) and a superman dive into the whole and into the middle of the zorb. Don't worry if you get stuck, he says, I'll just tip the ball so you fall in - hmmmm! So off I go... run, superman pose and jump! Right into the middle of a large plastic ball, currently being filled with water and in which I am about to run down a hill. It was much bigger in the middle of the Zorb than I expected. I suffer from claustrophobia so I was slightly worried beforehand but it was fine
Dancing steam from the hot, acidic lake
. It was quite warm inside, the sun heating it up through the rubber or plastic or whatever material it is that zorbs are made from, but the cold water I plunged into soon sorted that out. The guy took the hose out, popped his head inside and said he'd shut me in, count to three and then bang on the outside, when he did that I had to walk forward and enjoy the trip down. Right! Got it. He zipped up the little hole, a bit like how you zip yourself into a tent at the end of the night, and I was sitting in a pool of coldwater, inside a warm spherical object saying to myself "oh my god, what the hell am I doing?" Lee was stood outside, he decided to go second (chicken!) and I could just see him outside. You can't actually see where you're going once inside the Zorb apart from through the tiny hole you jump in through so it's quite a weird feeling. Anyway, the guy banged on the zorb signaling that it was time to walk forward. It was so funny, it was a bit like walking into the unknown. I didn't know if I had gone in the right direction or had pushed forward enough but I needn't have worried because a few seconds later, when I tried to continue walking forward, my feet went from underneath me, the ball went downhill, I slid onto my bum and then sloshed about in the water at the bottom of the zorb tumbling downhill. It was great! As the zorb zigzaged down the track I went up the sides, down the sides, almost straight over. It was like being on the biggest and best waterslide you have ever been on or maybe inside a washing machine, depending on which way you look at it
Frying pan lake - another one
. It was fantastic! I was screaming and laughing so much I'm sure I swallowed half the water in there. It's really, really disorientating, you don't know which way is up or which way you're going, then when the zorb goes around a corner you're sliding in all directions and just don't know your bum from your head. Every now and then I could see a glimpse of the outside world through the hole, spinning around and around, but I didn't concentrate on that too much, I was just enjoying being flung around in the water inside the zorb. Then, all too soon, I felt a bump, wobbled about a bit, then stopped. It was over and I was sad. It was so much fun I just wanted to get back into it and doing all over again. The man unzipped the hole, told me to sit there while photos were taken then told me how to get out (feet first), it was like being born almost, popping out of a tiny hole to be greeted by someone with a towel. My legs were a bit wobbly but I managed to get out gracefully. Once my zorb was off the track Lee was sent down. I quickly grabbed my camera to take some pictures. When he'd finished the same process happened - unzip, pictures, out. Except Lee's exit wasn't as graceful as mine! We both enjoyed it so much we went straight back into the reception and booked a double ride, which means we're both in the zorb together. But as the weight is different it also meant we could do the straight down run. So off up the hill in the bumpy boob van we go, then at the top the guy loads us in, same superman style, Lee in first then me in and smack, bang, goes my eye into Lee's knee
Hot river
. Ouch! I can't believe I managed to bash myself getting into the zorb. The guy zipped us up, same process as before, he banged the outside and both Lee and I walked forward. The idea was to see if we could run all the way down but a few seconds after we had gone I lost my footing, taking Lee out and then we both landed on the floor, in a big watery, mess. Being on the straight run meant that it was faster so we sloshed about a fair bit before hitting the fence at the end. I think Lee was glad because I'd almost burst his eardrum screaming so loud on the way down, in fact everyone we spoke too commented on how they could hear me at the beginning and at the bottom. There was a lady taking pictures for everyone, no obligation to buy them (of course), but they were really good. You get them on a CD and they should cost about $35 each but as we'd done 3 runs they gave us all the photos on the CD for the price of one, which was fab. I also bought a T-Shirt because they were pretty cool as well. We both wished we'd booked more runs because we really wanted to go up and do it again but we'd already spent a fair bit.Once we'd changed and jumped back into the car we headed for a drive around the suburbs of Rotorua. In particular St Faith's Church and the Maori meeting house there. As there is so much thermal activity around Rotorua they can't burry dead bodies in the ground as they'd be cooked, so they have to bury them in concrete coffins above the ground
Inferno crater
. It was so interesting to see, but not as interesting as driving around the local neighbourhood and seeing peoples gardens, paths, driveways steaming or bubbling or bits of the road breaking away under the steam pressure. Parts of the road, the grass, even the pavement are warm, where you can feel the activity beneath them. It was absolute madness. We read in the Lonely Planet that people have had to move home as and when Hot Springs or some other geothermal activity destroys their house or overtakes their land. There's a boiling hot pool near the church and the meeting house where they actually still cook things in it. It really is a spectacle. How people manage to live in such conditions I'll never know but they look like they do a pretty good job. We had a wander around the church and the meeting house, looking at all the carving. The church had just shut when we arrived so we couldn't go in to see the carvings in there but we had a peak through the windows. It was such a lovely evening that when we got back to the hostel we decided to go for a walk around the local park. It was beautiful, everything you'd expect from a local park - trees, grass, lovely flowers, statues scattered around, information boards and the wonderful aroma of smelly eggs in the air, big fenced off areas where bits of the ground had sunk away under the pressure from the hot spring or the steaming vent below it
Silica stream
. Big, thick, gloopy spouting mudpools and a big steaming lake that was hidden away so it crept up on you unexpectedly like something out of a horror film. It was geo-thermal wonderfulness. Spring flowers next to a sulphur pool, or maybe a little bird perched next to a bubbling mudpool. Just not what you'd expect. It was like a pick and mix playground, what would you find in the next fenced off area? Would it be spring or a vent or a fumerole or a big muddy mess? There were some parts where the grass and ground beneath it had obviously only recently collapsed, you could tell because instead of a nice wooden fence with a big 'Danger, Active Geothermal Area' sign and a stick man telling you not to climb over the fence, there was just a red emergency barrier around it. Which was a bit disconcerting. I was bounding all over the place and mildly concerned I'd find myself knee high in some hot spring or sulpher pit. Rotorua is just complete madness, I mean Yellowstone is in a National Park so you can kind of get your head around things because you visit the park, do the walks, look at all the fab geo thermal features and leave. But here, it's in your face all the time, it's part of peoples everyday lives. I did wonder how they put up with the smell (it does get to you after a while) but apparently they just get used to it. Just the sheer amount of stuff you can see for free is great, you wouldn't really need to do any of the parks (although I would highly recommend them all) if you didn't have the money, you could just spend the day walking around the town
The view from the top of Mt Haszard
.We headed back to the hostel and I cooked steak, veg and sauté potatoes for dinner. People commented on how nice the food smelt and looked, I quite like getting all these compliments about my cooking. The meat over here isn't expensive at all, our steak - a huge piece of rump, probably cost about $4, which is about 1.50 UK pounds. It would be rude not to eat meat at that price. Veg and tats are dirt cheap too, so I don't understand why people insist on thinking that in a hostel they have to have muck on toast. A tin of 'muck of your choice' costs about $3 as it is, plus bread. So it probably works out about the same really, except ours tastes much much nicer. Some German guy said if he hadn't have just eaten (muck on toast I might add) he would willing pay me for my dinner so he could eat it - hah! No chance.
