Rotorua Canopy Tours, Rotorua

The Canopy tour was one option among several in our deliberations for Rotorua. But, after other guests raved about it in our bed and breakfast and the weather was more likely to close on rain, we booked this tour at short notice. All the staff were very friendly, whether Rachel at the reception, a back office worker whose name I didn't remember and of course our tour guides Lauren and Jess. Before you start, however, one is weighed, gets a colored stamp on the back of the hand depending on the weight and is allowed to give the necessary information by pad for the tour. After that, you wait for the tour line in the preparation room, or you can visit the toilet again briefly, because you would have to get rid of all the equipment and then look for a quiet place in the forest. The tour line came-with us two young ladies-and put on the "dishes": Straps and hooks as well as rope roll/anchors as well as the helmets. They introduce themselves as Lauren and Jess and then we drove in the van to starting point. The ride, on which everyone introduced themselves briefly, then led 9 km from Rotorua to the left in a wooded area. Strammen Steents then took a narrow path through the rainforest uphill also over several steps. This was only the original Canopy Tour and the official necessary Fahtude:: To create three stages without assistance is a little far from reality. On the way was stopped again briefly and we got first information about the rainforest. At this point, Lauren then noticed a small bird sitting right next to the path. It was a "robin," a bird that only exists in New Zealand and in English: Long length snapper is called. Lauren and Jess also had mealworms with them, gave a volunteer the mealworm on his hand and the robin grabbed it at a breathtaking speed. One should have pressed the trigger a second beforehand to document this process. Lauren didn't believe this was a crafty bird that had realised exactly when the tours were passing, but felt there was something wrong with him and informed the tours, which passed that point later. Another short uphill and then the first zip line was waiting for us on a tree platform. There was once again a longer security briefing. Then Lauren was the first to go on the 70m journey to receive us safely on the other side. Jess then picked up one by one on the rope and in a sitting position we then picked up speed to land on a 12m high tree platform. Our first zip line (ZL) is an exciting experience so to fly through the air. You also had to get used to turning-weight-by-weight-on the flight and sometimes landing backwards rather than forwards, so Lauren occasionally had her trouble hoisting us up to the platform. On each of the tree platforms we were clinched, including on the following 50m rope bridge, which led to the next tree platform. Then came two more shorter ZL's before we tackled the longest ZL with 220m length at 22m height. These, too, well survived, we wandered a short distance through the forest again. On diagrams, native birds were shown and the corresponding introduced predators were shown: Rats, opossums and weasels, which, due to the lack of their own enemies, are amicably friendly to the bird life, which in some species such as the "Kiwis" almost led to extinction. However, it is still frightening how many birds or their eggs are brought to the track in a certain period of time. To change this, the manual traps used 5-6 years ago and very modern ones were also shown, which are used today and are probably visibly successful. Then came the most beautiful ZL, which was 170m long and crossed a wide forest valley. This was followed by a short rope bridge with no handrails on which you could take a photographic pose and finally the last ZL, which could be used to get 70m behind you lying on your back. There, an original group photo (camera on the floor, faces facing the camera) was also taken before, after a short commute, the van was ready for the return journey. It was a great experience overall and absolutely safe, but you can also see the high technical effort required for it and the patience and perseverance, the good humour and the sure knowledge of all the necessary skills of our two tour leaders. Thank you Lauren and Jess for such an amazing and awesome job.