Our whirlwind tour of New Zealand featured many highlights. For me it’s hard to decide between our hike up Franz Josef Glacier, our black water rafting adventure, and the sheer beauty of Milford Sound – but New Zealand had one more exciting adventure in store for us before we departed its fair shores.
From the day we first started discussing our New Zealand tour, Fallon and I were particularly excited about getting a chance to try out Zorbing. It seems nine people out of ten haven’t yet heard of this fascinating bit of leisure, so rather than try and paint you a word picture – here’s a video showing just what it is to zorb.
In case you can’t see it clearly – that’s a person inside of a ball with a few inches of water in it inside of a larger ball. You’re then rolled down a hill. It doesn’t lo0k particularly fast but trust me when I say it’s just about the most fun sixty seconds you’ll have in New Zealand. It’s akin to riding a water slide and being inside a washing machine all at once, and that’s a lot of fun.
There is also a dry zorb experience which, due to my recent Christmas over indulgences, I was slightly over the weight limit for. Still – I was happy to pay $98 NZ for three rides down the hill in the wet zorb, and I know Fallon had a hell of a good time rolling end over end in the dry zorb.
The whole zorb experience, which can be found just outside of Rotorua alongside a bunch of other thrill rides at the misleadingly named Agrodome, was a great way to farewell the stinkiest city in New Zealand and a good late Christmas present for the two of us. A flash drive full of our pictures set us back $29, and it was well worth the investment in my eyes.
The following day would see Fallon and I experiencing our black water rafting adventure in Waitomo, and then it was off to Auckland for our final day in the country. We may or may not have indulged in delicious Hell pizza not once but twice, but we’re on vacation and damned if we wanted to leave our hostel long enough to actually find food.
Auckland itself was a bit of a lull at the end of an action packed week and a half. We slept in, watched movies, and did very little else. The one real highlight of our trip was a day spent catching up with an old friend from my time in South Korea. Layton and I did a lot of drinking and drunken conversing in my time in Gwangju, and it was good to catch up with him and spend a day just exploring Auckland. A brief visit to the Victoria Park Markets, another to the Auckland Museum, and then an afternoon spent in a mall alternating between souvenir shopping and snacking. Our final purchase in NZ, barring our taxi to the airport the following morning, would be tickets to see The Tourist. No detailed review – it’s ok, but not something you need to rush out and see.
I guess after all of the fun and adventures of recent entries this one reads a little dull, and for that I apologize. But all trips have their less exciting moments, and Fiji was just around the corner with more excitement.
Links
Zorb
Hell Pizza
Victoria Park Markets
Auckland Museum
