Next Stop... Rotorua, NZ

Our next stop is Rotorua, NZ.  It's just about an hour drive from Taupo.  On the way, we made a couple of stops.  First, the Huka Honey Hive!  They had a working honey hive for the kids to check out and tons of activities and information about bees.  The kids were well entertained long enough for Scott and I to check out the mead!  It was great and we made a couple of selections.  They had all kinds of honey products, including a cafe with honey ice cream and delicious coffee with honey!

We stopped for lunch at the launch site for helicopter tours around the area.  We did not take a tour, but they had a nice cafe, so we ate lunch there.  Next to the cafe, there was an old Russian helicopter that we could all go inside of.  It was cool to see all of the controls in Russian.  Scott spotted the first aid kit and thought it was funny.

Our next stop was a tour of the Waikato River, including Huka Falls.  It's a beautiful river!!  Our tour guide told us that they filmed a scene for The Hobbit on this river.  It's the scene where Bilbo and the dwarfs are floating down the river in barrels.  I can't wait to see the movie!

The beautiful Huka Falls!

Next to our boat load/unload spot, there is a spillway that helps to maintain the water level of the Waikato river.  Just after we unloaded from the boat, the spillway opened and we were able to watch the water flow through.

This area was dry before the spillway opened and we watched the water level rise and then rush through the rocks.  

On our way up to Rotorua, we spotted a miniature golf course and decided to stop!

Once we arrived in Rotorua, we checked into our hotel and made a run to the grocery store.  We all needed to go to bed early in preparation for a big day!!

We're up to Sunday, September 30th...  I booked a Canopy Tour with Rotorua Canopy Tours.  It was exceptional!  It was amazing!  It was a 3 hour forest journey including hiking on the soft forest floor and soaring though the tree tops on zip lines.  I've never done anything like this before and it is definitely an experience I won't soon forget.  

The kids were troopers!  They wore helmets the entire time and were attached to either a tree or a zip line at all times (when we were high up)

In the rush to get to the tour on time, I forgot my camera!!  UGH.  I was so disappointed when I realized this that I wanted to cry.  However, the tour group had a solution.  They have a camera that you can hire and wear on your helmet and all I had to buy was the SD card that my video and photos are on.  Super! 

This picture is from my zip across the forest.  Absolutely gorgeous!

The tour group is a conservation effort to restore the native bird population to New Zealand.  It was educational, inspirational and beautiful.  When we were walking on the forest floor, it was spongy and felt like we were walking on a trampoline!  I've never experienced that.  Amazing.

Here goes Madeline!

The kids were SO BRAVE!  We had to hire an extra guide to accompany us because the children were too small to go across on their own.  They didn't weigh enough to make it all the way over some of the longer zips.  The kids went with a guide and Scott and I each went by ourselves.  The highest platform was 40 meters above the floor and the longest zip was 200 meters.  Super cool!

We all felt really safe the entire time.  The guides did all of the clipping and un-clipping from the lines and we were either fenced in or clipped to a tree when we were not on the ground.  

The kids were allowed to go by themselves for the final zip!  Unfortunately, our SD card was full by then, so I don't have pictures.  Just wonderful memories of our little adventure family zooming around.

After a morning like that, we all needed a rest.  In the afternoon, we headed over to Te Puia to check out a geyser and the arts and crafts of the Maori people.   

I loved watching this geyser.  It erupts 2 to 3 times per hour.  I love the colors on the rock formations. I must have taken over 100 pictures of it.  I could have stayed here for hours, but the kids had other plans...   

The mud pools do not make the most interesting photos, but they were very interesting to watch.  The mud was boiling right before our eyes. 

The Maori village was interesting to walk through.  This building is a replica of what would have been a storage building for food and special treasures.  The Maori people were the early Polynesian settlers of New Zealand.  

We found a lake side park to spend the early evening.  The kids played on the playground, chased the birds and we watched the sun set on another awesome day!