New Zealand X: Jumping to Rotorua

Jan 12, 2011

Today we drove to Rotorua, the area in New Zealand known for its geothermal activity, geysers and hot mud pools. But first we took a brief detour. An adventure detour. An adrenaline-rush detour. A detour to Taupo, home of New Zealand's highest water touch bungy jump. Oh yes. You didn't think we'd leave New Zealand without bungy jumping, did you? Good. I knew you knew better. We walked into Taupo Bungy NZ, signed our lives away and were standing on a ledge 144 meters above water just minutes later. That's when I looked down and gulped. As the older sister, I volunteered to go first. The instructors wasted no time putting me in the bungy gear, and the next thing I knew I was being instructed to walk towards the ledge. I felt like Wendy walking the plank, only Peter Pan wasn't waiting below to catch me. Nothing was below to catch me except for a lake. A lake that was a long, long, longgggggg way away.

The Spot over the Waikato River

It's a lot farther down than it looks from this picture

The Big Jump

I shuffled my feet to the edge of the ledge (I couldn't walk because my ankles were tied together). I looked down. My hear stopped beating. I experienced a brief moment of panic when I thought, "What did I get myself into?!" (mixed in with lots of explicatives). But there was no time to linger on this fear, because suddenly the instructor behind me was counting, "And jump on 3-2-1. Jump!" I froze. And then I took a huge breath in, raised my arms above my head and, on the exhale, drove off the tower. This was followed by an ear-shattering scream. I don't think I have ever screamed like that in my entire life. I'm not the screaming type. On roller-coasters I laugh. Skydiving, even, I laughed. But for a few brief moments I felt like I was plummeting to my death. And then the bungy suddenly snapped my body back to life as I rose up in the air and fell rapidly back down again until I hung with my body dangling meters above the water. It was scary. It was exhilarating. It was unlike anything I've ever done before. It was awesome. I loved every second of it. I would do it again in a heart beat. In fact, I wish I could bungy every morning when I woke up. It would be a perfect start to everyday. I think Laura would agree with me. And she has a video of her jump, so if you're really curious you can come over and watch the action unfold before your very own eyes.

With that checked off the list, we carried on to Rotorua...


Thermal Pools and A Volcanic Valley


As we approached Rotorua, Laura and I stopped at the Waikite Valley Thermal Pools, which is a natural thermal bathing complex. We parked the car and walked around the site, observing massive clouds of steam that were raising from the ground. This turned out to be steam that came from the Otamakokore Stream which was boiling below. This stream has the the largest discharge of boiling water in New Zealand from a single source. It looked hot! I'm pretty sure if we stuck our hand in the boiling river it would have burned right off. 

Waikite Thermal Pools

the boiling Otamakokore River

Next, we ventured to the Waimangu Volcanic Valley, the world's newest geothermal system. We spent about two hours walking through this jurassic valley, where we saw unique ecology, rare botany and numerous geothermal features. Most of these features were a result of th eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886. I felt like I had entered Jurassic Park, post dinosaurs going extinct.

The Volcanic Valley

First we passed Southern Crater, which is filled with a cold lake called Emerald Lake. 

Emerald Lake in South Crater

Then we viewed Eco Crater and Frying Pan Lake, one of the world's largest hot springs. You can see the bubble and steam rising off the lake below. 

Eco Crater and Frying Pan Lake

Next we observed the Cathedral Rocks, a massive rhyolitic lava formation that is more than 60,000 years old. 

Cathedral Rock

All the while we strolled along the very hot Waimangu Stream, which weaved throughout the valley and its jurassic forests. The stream extremely hot and full of silica. 

Strolling through the forest

The Waimangu River (it's hot!!)

Silica in the river. 

Next we stopped off at Inferno Crater. This is the largest geyser-like feature in the world, and was the most incredible color blue of any lake I've seen thus far. It was so bright and so blue that I actually had to put my sunglasses on to look at it. 

Inferno Crater

Lastly, we observed Buttressess Marble Terrace. These marble buttressess were built one layer at a time. The orange that you see is silica. 

From this volcanic valley, we began to head back to the hostel in Rotorua. But first we decided to stop off at another uniquely New Zealand adventure spot- Zorb Rotorua. Zorb, or zorbing as the actual ride is called, is essentially a globe ride. You climb into a big, inflatable globe-ball and roll down a hill. The globe is filled with water so it is sort of like going down a water slide, except in a big ball. Laura and I were all gung-ho about going Zorbing. The website promised it would be the "ride of our lives," and past participants raved about how much fun it was. But when Laura and I pulled up the Zorbing site, our excitement quickly dissipated. It just wasn't exactly what our powerful imaginations had conjured up in our minds. I envisioned a massive hill with a never ending Zorbing path that would take me on an unforgettable, roller coaster-like ride. What I found was a small, wimpy hill that would barely be fun to sled down, nonetheless Zorb down. We watched others Zorb down the hill and it took a whopping 10 seconds to roll down. Paying $50 bucks for 10 seconds in a plastic ball water-slide seemed a bit silly. I'd much rather put that money towards a slip and slide that I can slide down over and over again. Plus, after our incredible morning experience bungy jumping, this paled in comparison. Hence, we passed on the Zorbing thing. But I do love the word Zorb. Isn't it fun? 

The Zorbing Hill- where the "ride of your life" goes down

That evening Laura and I enjoyed a lovely picnic along the ocean, complete with cider, cheese, crackers, fruit, nuts and chocolate. Another perfect ending to another perfect day in New Zealand.