Today, the weather was absolutely beautiful! It was sunny all day and quite warm. I’ve only brought leggings and jeans with me, but I think it will only get cooler the further south we go.
We got up fairly early and headed to Skyline. We decided because it was Easter Sunday it would be worth going early - and we were right! We went up in the gondola at 8.30amand walked virtually straight onto the luge. We must have looked confident too, because the guy put us straight on the intermediate track. He was sending everyone else to the scenic (boring!) one.
When I was a kid we did the luge in Queenstown and I couldn’t get it to move much because I was 8 and tiny (even shorter than I am now!). Today everything worked a lot better. We whizzed down the intermediate, got the chair lift and headed back up. Then we did the advanced track twice. It was awesome! Absolutely floored it and was airborne at one point over a big hill. Rob tells me this one is steeper and faster than the Queenstown one. I can make my own judgement next week when we do it too!
Unfortunately by the third ride, the queues had begun. We had to wait half an hour for our final ride and it was only 9.40am. I hate to think what the queues were like later in the day! Rob’s third luge vehicle had something wrong with it so he couldn’t go very fast. The worker told him he could go again but he would have to queue up. He decided he didn’t mind that much so left it.
Instead we went and had a look at the stunning view across Lake Rotorua and enjoyed a coffee/chai. It was a lovely way to start our Easter Sunday.
Then we headed back to our accommodation. Rob had gotten a splinter from trying to push himself faster on the fence. We took care of that, then got some fish and chips and walked to the lakeside. We had lunch on a bench here in the sun. It was so sunny we had to use our sunscreen!
On the walk back, we had fun jumping on some in ground trampolines. Then we asked about walking tracks in the tourist info centre. The man got stuck into me with lots of Collingwood jokes about my hat. Turns out I can’t escape even over here! He gave us some good advice about walks and finished with “have a good day - ya bogan!” Hahaha.
We drove a few kilometres out of town to the redwood forest. CalifornianRedwoods were introduced here about 100 years ago, and the information centre guy told us there were heaps of free walking tracks here. We picked a 1.5 hour one and enjoyed redwoods, ferns and a beautiful little gully with extremely clear and still water due to the sulphur in the area. Stunning!! We got to a lookout and enjoyed a view of the lake and town.
Then we had a rest back at our motel before heading to the final destination of our day - the Polynesian Spa. We had a look around Government Gardens on the way and admired the beautiful museum building (which unfortunately is currently closed for renovations). We spent about two hours in total in the geothermal springs. I went to the Mornington Springs at home a couple of weeks ago and loved them. These ones in Rotorua were quite a bit hotter though! I had to keep getting in and out so I didn’t get too hot. Finally though the temperature cooled a bit as the sun went down, and we found a nice spot out facing the lake where we stayed for ages. It was really relaxing and lovely to sit down and talk to Rob properly. At home even though we live together our jobs’ schedules rarely line up, so we never really get time to just talk.
On the way out we read a bit of history about the Priest Spring and Rachel Spring that feed into the spa. In 1878, a catholic priest called Father Mahoney who was disabled by arthritis was carried to bathe in the spring. After soaking in its waters he could walk again, so they called it Priest Spring. The township was then planned around the thermal springs and the spa was built. A few variations of it have existed over the years, the first of which collapsed after just years due to its sulphuric environment. Nowadays there are 26 pools with temperatures up to 42 degrees with minerals such as silica, bicarbonate, calcium and more in its waters. Then we had a quick look at the museum building again which was lit up in pretty lights.
We are relaxing in the room now, eating some fruit and other bits we bought earlier today. Tomorrow we have an included lunch at a Maori village and then are going out for dinner.
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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