Rotorua

Rotorua

In the morning, we walked the 1km into town to have a look round.  The centre of Rotorua is all shops, but many of them look quite tired.  Further towards the lake, they liven up a bit, with one street housing restaurants of all nationalities.  The lake itself is huge and there were hundreds of birds either sleeping on the water or begging tourists for food.

We then returned to the site for a quick bite of lunch before being picked up to be taken to our rainforest canopy tour.  Billed as a 3-hour eco adventure, it is set in 500 hectares of native rainforest within a conservation area.  When the group took on the land, it had been over-run by possums, rats and stoats which had “killed almost every bird in the forest and decimated the eco-system”.  Over the last three years the Canopy Conservation Trust has trapped thousands of these pests, to the point where native birds are now returning to the forest.

And they’ve funded part of this work with the Canopy Tour, which is part adventure and part educational.  At the office, ten of us were fitted up with our harnesses and safety gear, then bundled into a van for the trip to the start.  Our two – very well-rehearsed – guides kept us occupied by having us introduce ourselves.

Once in the forest, you are immediately struck by the light; it has to filter through the canopy of leaves overhead, so everything has a green tinge.  It’s a bit like being in a church with stained glass windows.  The guides introduced us to a number of plant species, including the silver fern, which is the logo of several NZ organisations.

Then we took a narrow track through the trees and up loads of steps.  Eventually we came to a platform where we had a safety briefing.  Basically, don’t touch anything metal, bend your knees and grab the rope if the guide tells you to.  At that point, the first guide attached himself to a cable, opened a gate in the railings and sailed across to another platform in a tree 70 metres away.  Naturally, we all followed suit!

This was the first of six zip lines, which, along with two rope bridges and a conservation trail, formed our circular tour.  An exhilarating experience!