We left the holiday park around 11 and headed for the Te Puia geothermal park. It was overcast but still quite warm out. We got our tickets and headed for the entrance. We went to the kiwi exhibit first where we saw a single kiwi in its dark and quiet room. The geyser was quite active but not necessarily spewing all over. The area was hot and smelly and in places, we could feel the warm ground through our shoes. We took our time walking around to the different geothermal features and eventually, we were far away from the mob of other tourists and all on our own walking the gravel paths which was really nice.
We got our money's worth and walked the whole park and finished it off by checking out the Maori area where natives were carving wooden sculptures and totem poles. There was a big waka, one of their war canoes, but not as big as the one I saw in Whangarei. We walked through the large gift shop and then left the park. We had time to kill before going up the gondolas on the mountain to ride the luge so we went to McDonalds for wifi and then headed back to the holiday park. We made a small snack and hung out until about 5pm.
We made our way towards the Skyline park and mountain early so that we could hopefully beat the crowd and get our tickets. We got the night time deal of $49 for our lift up the gondola, five luge runs, and a personal pizza. The gondolas were quite nice and we were up the mountain in no time. Someone who didn't want their luge punch card anymore gave it to us, which was really cool. We took a swig or two out of the flasks we brought before picking our helmets and getting in the queue for the luge. We had to take the beginner course for our first run and the carts were simple. Just a seat and handlebars, and you pulled back on them to brake and you could steer a bit but they mainly just use momentum and gravity to go. The beginner run was fun but we were ready for the next level.
We took the chair lift back to the top and went down the intermediate course. It had sharper corners and parts were steeper. Next we tried the advanced one and it was a blast. I pushed it to the limit and zoomed down the course and on one of the big hills I actually got air. I went up on two or three wheels around a few of the corners too. We raced down the advanced a few more times before it closed up. We got our pizzas which were delicious. After going down the intermediate course three times we called it a night. We made it back to the holiday park and went to bed.
