Roadtrip: Nice NZ Nature

Got up bright and early and then headed out for a drive to the Agrodome – a place we’d heard about with all different activities. When we got there, we were greeted by a giant fibreglass sheep (not too dissimilar to the Big Merino in Goulburn, only much smaller!) and we parked up to have a mooch about to see what there was to do. There were a lot of sheep related activities, but we decided we’d seen sheep being sheared already and the prospect of being introduced to nineteen different breeds of sheep didn’t really rock our worlds, so we then checked out some of the less farm-related things on offer.

The odd thing about the Agrodome was the contrast between the two different sets of activities – on the one hand there were the sheepy farmy things, then on the other there were things like bungee, a jetboat, zorbing and a couple of really intriguing activities called ‘Swoop’ and ‘Shweeb’. The former was a bit like a giant swing, where you get put in a kind of sleeping bag type thing, then winched up by the bungee crane, then they let you go and you swoop down, missing the ground by inches, and swing back and forth – just watching this made Mike go white as a sheet! The latter was really odd – there was a track with two plastic pods dangling from it, which you lie inside and pedal like a bike – it’s really difficult to explain (pics to follow when they've sent them to me)! Anyway, in the end, we decided that the Shweeb looked entertaining but not too terrifying, so Mike and I had a 3 lap race – I am certainly no cyclist so I was not surprised at being trounced, with a time of 1min 33sec against Mike’s time of 57secs. My legs killed afterwards!

After we’d recovered, we headed back on the road to go to a ‘Kiwi Encounter’ at Rainbow Springs. We went on a tour of the centre and learned all about how the kiwi is endangered (the birds, not the fruit!) and what they do to help protect them. They collect the eggs from the wild (otherwise the chances of a successful hatch are very slim) and hatch them there at the centre, raise the chicks until they reach a certain size and weight, then release them back into the wild. We got to see an egg in the incubator and three kiwis running about in their reserve – they were way bigger than I thought they would be and had very long legs. The best thing about the kiwi was the way they run/walk, with really elongated strides – a very entertaining, Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks style! Unfortunately because they are nocturnal, it’s not possible to take photos of them (the camera flash upsets them apparently!) so I had to get a picture of a stuffed one from the exhibition instead! Whilst we were on the tour, we were being filmed by a camera crew from the Canadian Discovery Channel who were making a documentary about the conservation project. When they were filming the lady showing our group around and telling us about the kiwis, Mike managed to smack his head against a tv monitor so I guess that may have ruined one of their shots!

Once we’d been through the Kiwi section, we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Rainbow Springs – a rather small nature park. We saw lots of different types of trout; they were absolutely massive, so much so that I would say they could certainly bite my leg off! There were also lots of indigenous plants, such as the Kauri tree, Ponga (the iconic silver fern) and the cabbage tree. They had a little aviary with some Tui, Kaka and Kereru, which were all very pretty and rather large!

One of NZ’s native birds which has long since been extinct is the Moa, so we were really confused when we saw ‘Moa’ marked on the little map we were following around the park, so we were quite baffled as to how we were going to see one, then we found they had just put up a statue of one and all became clear! It was pretty big, so I don’t think I would want to get too close to a Moa it if it was still alive (apparently there are some die-hard Moa enthusiasts who are convinced the Moa are still wandering about in the bush somewhere!).

We then discovered why Rainbow Springs got its name – they have a natural spring which delivers cold, fresh, crystal clear water directly from the mountains. We were given a bottle to fill up from the spring and we were pleasantly surprised at how good the water tasted – considering how terribly Rotorua smells, the water really was so clear and there was absolutely no hint of sulphur!

When we got back to the hostel, we dumped the car and went for a wander into town. We then noticed lots and lots of people all flooding in the same direction, so we thought we’d see where they were going and followed them! They all headed into an exhibition centre and it seemed the whole town was there! We could not work out what they were doing; the centre had been split into two – in one half there were hundreds and hundreds of people mingling about and in the other, it was a running Mecca – all things Asics for sale! We then found out that it had been the Rotorua marathon and everyone had arrived for the prize giving ceremony! Mike had to drag me away from all the exciting Asics stuff as I was sorely tempted by lots of it!

After a bit more of a mooch around town, we found somewhere to have dinner - a buffet style restaurant which had absolutely loads of different foods (steak, roast, fish etc etc!). It was really great, but then we ate so much we could barely move. We staggered back to the hostel and again hogged the tv, watching more news about the general election – things certainly seem to be getting a bit sticky for Mr Brown!