Directly across the street from the Ripple Hotel, where we stayed for two nights, was the Gondola Ride and Luge Slide, so we drove there and went up in the gondola with Helen and Deborah. Helen and Deb went back down in the gondola almost immediately (thinking they could catch us on film coming down the mountain in the luges) while Lisa and I headed for the gift shop on the way to the Luge Slide area.
Me in the Luge Lobby — the only photo of me on a luge! Photo courtesy of Deborah Davies
We both got NZ hoodies in the gift shop so we had to tuck them between our legs when we took the luge ride down the mountain partway. We thought the luge would take us all the way back to the parking lot, but that wasn’t the case. We had to get on a ski-lift type thingy and get lifted back to the gift shop area to take the gondola down to the parking lot. No harm, no foul, but Lisa wasn’t comfortable hanging like a rag doll over the abyss on a ski lift. It felt unsafe compared to the gondola ride!
We were both sorry we didn’t elect to take three luge rides. The one we took was the longest of the three offered (the scenic one) but it was just about fifteen minutes long and Lisa was hesitant to pass two others on luges who were going a lot slower than we wanted to go, so we stayed back and followed them much of the way down. I think maybe she forgot that they were positioning themselves on the left so we could/would/should pass them on the right (the exact opposite of here in the US) and she felt she might get sideswiped if she tried to maneuver around them.
After that adventure, Deborah drove us to Rotorua proper, where we bought lunches on Eat Street (I kid you now — not a typo!).
After that we took a drive through tour of the Roturua gardens and viewed the gorgeous Maori government buildings. Then we took a brief detour to visit Deb’s cousin, whom she hadn’t seen in two years. She didn’t stay more than five minutes, as we had a “lion feeding” time at Paradise Valley Springs to make it to just in time.
After the lion feeding (the only time during the entire visit when it rained, except for one other time, on the same day, while we were in transit between adventures) Helen and Debbie waited in the gift shop while Lisa and I toured the rest of the zoo and took lots of great photos. Of course, we spent five to ten minutes with the goats, too!
At this zoo I bought a large poster of a mountain lion and her cub for just$10. It was the last one available. I got lucky!
I also got a tuatara stuffed toy that plays the actual sound of a tuatara.
We returned to the hotel and most of us enjoyed the personal spa. The night before, Helen, Lisa and I swam in the pool.
