Apr 26th: In The Land Of The Giants

Day 23 (Day 19 in New Zealand)

Waking up this morning to light drizzle and grey skies was a little disappointing. Then we remembered where we were and the view outside!

We hadn’t planned ahead for an activity today. The thinking was we might be getting tired and need a quiet day plus some of the options were weather dependent.

We decided on a 10 minute drive to visit the Rotorua Redwoods - a forest of giant trees similar to those found in California. Free options included walks of between 30 minutes and 8 hours were available. 

We started with a treetop walk. 20 metres above the ground, you pass between these 75 metre giant trees over 28 bridges suspended between platforms around them. It was a “soothing and replenishing” (not my words!) to be high among these majestic trees.





Another vertical pano hoping to show the size of the tree

They are all relative youngsters at 123 years old. Some in the USA are as old as 3,000 years! 240 seeds weigh about 1 gram and yet they grow rapidly into these monsters.


After lunch we did a one hour stroll through the forest again, this time at ground level. 

Vertical pano - very odd effect!


A self-timer with the phone on the ground.
I should’ve cropped it but I quite like it!

Close up of the bark

The start of a different treetop walk. 

Then it was back to the flat for a few hours rest.

Julie enjoying a cuppa on our balcony…

… and the view she is enjoying. 

And you think we are coming back to England?

After a meal in the B&B (pie and baked beans - Heinz ‘English recipe’) we went back to the redwood forest. We bought a ‘combo ticket’ meaning we could do it again at night time, all lit up.

Arriving at about 8:15 there was quite a queue (still school holidays here) but we only had to wait about 30 mins as they were admitting people in groups of 20.

It was enchanting, magical and other adjectives. We didn’t take so many photos as we did earlier and although they look great to us they don’t mean much if you are reading this so here are a few of our favourites.

Queuing to get in. Projection on to trees. 







Looks like a million glow-worms (view on full screen)

Off to Auckland tomorrow. 

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