The Undercover Bloggers: Loving the The Luge

Rotorua was our Adventure Destination the other weekend. The purpose - a work do staying at the Novotel, on the Lakefront. Posh! The weather forecast... heavy rain.

Rotorua is our thermal tourist mecca in the central North Island known locally as RotoVegas and RottenRua. It smells of sulphur, which takes some getting used to, as I warned the kids. But that sulphurous smell has its benefits... mainly that nobody can tell when you have, er, let rip!!

When we arrived in town on Saturday afternoon and it was not raining as had been forecast, clever hubby said, Let's head straight to the Luge!

The Luge is incredible family FUN. First you go up up up in a gondola with breathtaking views over the town and Lake.

Then you don helmets and line up, up, up and wait for your turn to go down down down the circuitous mountain tracks on these little go-carts (luges) at lifethreatening speeds.

The great thing is that you can take kids up to age six in front of you (which only counts as one ticket) so our eight-ride ticket stretched pretty far.

Daddy and the two-yearold (yes they let them on that young) buddied up and me and my six-year-old braved it out together leaving the 7-year old to adventure on his own. My thrill-seeking son was up for anything and managed pretty well, only crashing once or twice. Eek. But no harm done.

When you get to the bottom of the endless track you jump on... chairlifts! And get taken back up, up, up to the top of the mountain ready to ride again.

This was by far the coolest family thing we have ever done. Maybe even better than the theme parks at the Gold Coast. We had so much fun!! And because we rolled up late in the afternoon by the time we got up to the top for our second ride, guess what... no queues! Just jump back on a luge and off we went again.

A Scary Moment (where mummy had to save the day...)
On our second chairlift ride, daddy was ahead with the 2-yr old, and our 7-yr old (Dash) had to go on the chairlift by himself... he jumped on and the lift started to go... without the safety bar being lowered! Dash couldn't reach it and the operator was on his walkie talkie not paying attention (naughty naughty!!) so mummy had to chase the chairlift up the hill and quickly pull the safety bar in place before Dash's chair was out of reach.

My heart was hammering. imagine if my little son had had to ride all the way to the top if the mountain with no safety bar?? You can bet that hubby told the manager a thing or two at the other end. Oh Yes. But thankfully mummy managed to be a hero and RUN. Phew. And no harm was done. And hopefully that chairlift guy will never ever do that again :(

The chairlift back up to the top of the mountain was a lovely part of the experience with each ride. And the ride down took longer than I imagined it would, with a number of different routes to choose from. My arms were aching the next day with the strain of holding the handlebars in the right position, but even for a sissy like me, it wasn't too scary, and actually very rewarding doing with with your kid tucked in front of you.

The rain poured down the next day and we were glad we had gone when the mood took us the day before.
The luge is NOT a rainy day activity!

But it is a totally fun one for all the family. I would totally do it again.