On our second and final full day in Rotorua we ventured to Redwoods Altitude in the redwood forest at the crater rim. After getting into our harnesses and a quick safety briefing we climbed up a spiral staircase to reach the start of the course 25 meters above the ground.
The 600m course consisted of a variety of bridges and ziplines between the redwoods. Incredibly, this forest is only 120 years old! The extra rainfall and nutrient-rich volcanic soil lets these California Redwood trees grow at 10x the rate that they do in the United States. Before too long they’ll be able to drive a car through one.
The course itself was cool, but the highlight for me was just the perspective of looking down to the lower canopy of the forest from above. New Zealand has a variety of native tree ferns, and these dominated our view to the forest floor.
After completing our adventure with a short jump off the last platform we headed back to the city and drank a couple of local Croucher beers at a pub near our hotel while I wrote up the previous day’s blog post. Later that evening we had our last activity in Rotorua: A soak in the mineral pools and massage at the Polynesian Spa. No pictures from that but the walk back through the government gardens at sunset was lovely.
Tomorrow we drive south to Turangi in preparation for the Tongariro Crossing trek.