While in Rotorua, we stayed in a B&B which was advertised to be in the Redwood Forest but it actually was on a residential street near the forest. Vivian was our host and she loved to talk. The house was a split level with most of our living space in the basement section which smelled of mildew. It was not fancy or unique. We did have the chance to try something new: Vegemite and Marmite. We had heard of Vegemite in a song by the Australian rock band, Men @ Work; the song is
Down Under. The lyrics are: "He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich". Until our visit, some of us thought the lyrics were "a bite of my sandwich", so we learned something new and we also found out none of us like either Vegemite or Marmite-guess we're not ready to live Down Under!
In the morning, we were picked up @ our B&B by The Ultimate Canopy Tour Company's van. One of the events, Jeri & I were definitely going to do while in NZ was zip line. Doug & Craig were on board with us, Cheryl & Jerry O were too chicken & said no, when we made the reservations. But when the day came & with a little peer pressure, Cheryl & Jerry decided they didn't want to miss out on a beautiful adventure & came with us. Our guide, Jarrod drove us into the Rain Forest to their headquarters. We were weighed & measured for helmets, rain gear & harnesses. Jarrod then took us for a long tramp further into the rain forest while he enlightened us with some history. The trees are hundreds of years old. This company is very involved in conservation of the forests and uses a portion of the proceeds to help eradicate pests & invasive species that kill the native animals. Before they began building the zip line park, they wanted to allow the native birds to return. The rats, possums and snooks had eaten all the bird eggs and driven the birds from the forest. They set out traps and on the first day, captured over 800 invasive creatures. The small staff couldn't keep up with the traps, so they began to use a CO2 cartridge elimination system and in 2 years the native birds had returned and they opened the park. We could hear the birds singing & even had one eat a worm out of Craigs hand.
In total, there were 6 long zip lines to ride, seven platforms to land on and 5 suspension bridges to cross. We soared above the tree tops and looked down on the beautiful fern trees and the Giant Rimu. The zip lines ranged from 50 meters to 400 meters in length. It was great fun descending from the top of the forest canopy in between the thrill of the zip lines and suspended tree bridges. Our adventure included a 400m long tandem zip, a suspended cliff face walkway, swing bridges, a controlled descent and an impressive spiral staircase. It was an amazing experience. We all loved it, even Cheryl who while preparing to rappel, did say some nasty words to our wonderful guide but smiled the whole way down.
Vivian, our host had sold us VIP tickets to the Whakarewarewa
Forest (remember how to pronounce WH in NZ) Tree Night Walk. That evening, after getting back to our B&B and resting, we walked to the Redwood Forest. We really didn't know what to expect; our first surprise was the amount of people who were there and waiting in line. Our VIP tickets were fabulous because we skipped the long, long line and walked right to the first bridge. While walking the 28 suspension bridges with platforms, we could see lots of beautiful hanging lights in the 120 year old giant redwoods. The forest @ night was transformed with illuminated wood carved lanterns and fairy like moving lights in the brush and the trees. At the end of the walk, where all the people were in line waiting to get onto the bridges, there were LED animated shapes of worms jumping from hole to hole and it was very entertaining, watching the kids hopping about trying to catch them. We don't know how the illusion was made. On the walk back to the B&B, Craig, Cheryl, Jeri & Jerry O
saw their first Wallaby under a full moon and an amazing sky full of stars.
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