Simon & Caroline's World Tour 07/08

The rain was lashing down, but we stuck to the schedule and went to the thermal reserve of Te Puia. Mud pools were happily plopping, and geysers gushing (probably, there was a lot of steam obscuring the view but there were a lot of whooshing noises), and the ever present eggy smell was more than abundant. In fact the whole hill, and indeed the rest of Rotorua was gently puffing steam, a quite surreal view! The ticket also included a cultural show from the Maoris, the highlight being the Haka, where warriors slap their chests, recite some scary words, stick out their tongues and bulge their eyes in a uniquely Maori way. It's meant to scare any opponents before a battle, and I reckon it probably would've worked a few times.

The sun was starting to peek through the clouds, just in time as we were off to the luge, as recommended by Pete. Seeing there was some other ride called the Skyswing at the top of the hill as well, we eagerly bought tickets, and were up the gondola in no time. The Skyswing looked so innocent, a nice little cage suspended by cables that would somehow do a swing. Laughing off the suggestion the ride was scarier than bungies and skydives, we climbed in and were strapped in, twice. That's when the little seed of doubt was sown, the cage winched the three of us up, tilting so we were face down and we had no option but to trust the harness. At the top there was one thing left to do, come down, and I had control over that with a release cord. With a couple of screaming girls next to me, I gave the cord a tug and we were off, 150km in 2 seconds.

The ride was definitely scarier than it looked, helped by the cage pushing you down the free fall, and swinging out over nothing but a long drop down to Rotorua. At least I know my adrenalin glands still work.

That wasn't even the reason we were up the hill, the luge beckoned, and true to Pete's word it was great fun. Sitting on a little black tray with wheels we careered down a concrete track, screeching around corners on two wheels (me!) and over kerbs (Caroline!), although some of us took it a bit too easy (Cat!).

We caught the gondola back down the hill with Caroline renewing her vow to retire from these danger sports, we've all heard that one before! ;-)