Day 7 – Sunday

The alarm rings out at 5:30am and I’m probably not quite ready to get up yet. I force myself out of bed and give the kids a shake. We have some brekky and jump in the car to get to the Zip Line Canopy Tour Office by 6:30ish. The weather today is perfect, just like yesterday, a bit fresh but blue skies. Once at the office we fill in some forms and the guides rig us all up with harnesses. We are in a group of 10 with a family of 5 from NSW and one bloke from the UK. Our Guides, Kris and Abbey (or Ebbey and she pronounced it) loaded us into the bus and took us for the short drive to the forest, about 5-10km’s away. Once there it was a short walk through the forest to the first zip line platform for a 70m long zip line ride. Kris and Tyler are packing their daks and it was hilarious to watch Kris stepping off the platform. We do a couple more zip lines and then we get to the big daddy, a 220m long zip line way above the forest canopy. At this stage Kris still hasn’t managed to do a zip line with her eyes open or with her hands off the zip line rope. This didn’t change for the 220m long zip line for Kris but the rest of us are loving it. In total there were 6 lines totalling about 670 metres and the tour took about 3 ½ hours. It was a lot of fun and a tour I think all of us would recommend. After we arrived back at the office we crossed the road and headed to Skyline Rotorua. Skyline is a gondola ride up to the top of the “mountain” or “very high hill” and at the top there are a bunch of different activities to do with the main one being the Luge. We purchase the family pass which gives us the gondola ride and 10 luge rides to share. There are 3 tracks, the scenic route (for pussies), the intermediate route (also for pussies) or the advanced route (for tough guys). We start off on the scenic route (because it’s our first time and they don’t allow us to do any other route without the necessary experience) and the luge proves to be an instant winner for us and we can’t wait to get back up to do the intermediate route. This is not to say the scenic route was lame but it was full of Indians and Asians. Now I know this is can be viewed as a contentious remark but if you have ever driven a car you will know that Indians and Asians cannot drive. This is no different on the luge. The scenic route is meant for beginners but you risk you life dodging and weaving the Indians and asians putt-putting it down the hill or the stationary Indian women who has decided it’s all too hard for them and they decide to leave their luge and bail. Anyway, once we get back to the top via the chairlift, we hit the intermediate track and I become Daniel Ricciardo but only better and I zoom down the track at a speed only previously witnessed on the space shuttle Atlantis! I flog Tyler and Mia by about 3 days and wait at the bottom to gloat. Kris decided with only 10 rides that Tyler, Mia and me should have 3 each and she’d stick with just the one scenic ride which was a good idea because Kris, a helmet and a luge just do not mix. This combination redefines the word NERD!!! We chair lift it back to the top and we line up for the advanced route. The kids are now aware that they are up against probably one of the worlds best luge riders and are talking about who is going to come second. I give the kids a good head start and it’s a lot of fun chasing them down. This track is insane and at one point the track dips and it feels like you get airborne. I’m on Mia’s hammer jut as we get to this bit and as we come out of it Mia is heading for the wall. She slams on the skids and I go whizzing past. Tyler also proves an easy get and by the time we get to the bottom we are all talking about purchasing some more rides. We get to the top and decide we will come back and do the night luge which starts at 6:30pm. The night luge is cheaper and as we have already paid for the gondola ride it’s cheaper again. We head back to the apartment to have some lunch and a swim before jumping back in the car and returning to Skyline. This time we purchase 14 rides, 2 for Kris and 4 each for Mia, Tyler and me. We have an absolute ball and this place has become a favourite of ours and its great to know they have one in Queenstown and we all agree that we will be heading there once we make our way to the South island. We head home around 9:30 and everyone thinks that this has been our best day yet. It’s been a long day full of adventure, excitement and fun and a great way to leave Rotorua for Napier tomorrow.