Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Skyline Rotorua
MAP
EXTREME SPORTS
( 07-347 0027;
www.skyline.co.nz
;
Fairy Springs Rd; adult/child gondola $25/12.50, luge 3 rides $42/32, sky swing
$63/53; 9am-11pm)
This gondola cruises up Mt Ngongotaha, about 3km northwest of town,
from where you can take in panoramic lake views or ride a speedy luge back down on
three different tracks. For even speedier antics, try the Sky Swing, a screaming swoosh
through the air at speeds of up to 160km/h. Also at the top are a restaurant, a cafe and
walking tracks.
Kawarau Jet
MAP
JETBOATING
GOOGLE MAP
( 07-343 7600, 0800 538 7746;
www.kjetrotorua.co.nz
; Lakefront; 30min adult/child $74/54; 9am-6pm)
Speed things up on a jetboat ride with Kawarau Jet, which tears around the lake. Parasail-
ing (30 minutes tandem/solo $80/115) and fishing trips (from $170 per hour) also avail-
able.
HINEMOA & TUTANEKAI
Hinemoa was a young woman of a
hapu
(subtribe) that lived on the western shore of Lake Rotorua, while Tu-
tanekai was a young man of a Mokoia Island
hapu
. The pair met and fell in love during a regular tribal meeting.
While both were of high birth, Tutanekai was illegitimate, so marriage between the two was forbidden.
Home on Mokoia, the lovesick Tutanekai played his flute for his love, the wind carrying the melody across the
water. Hinemoa heard his declaration, but her people took to tying up the canoes at night to ensure she wouldn't
go to him.
Finally, Tutanekai's music won her over. Hinemoa undressed and swam the long distance from the shore to the
island. When she arrived on Mokoia, Hinemoa found herself in a quandary. Shedding her clothing in order to
swim, she could hardly walk into the island's settlement naked. She hopped into a hot pool to think about her next
move.
Eventually a man came to fetch water from a cold spring beside the hot pool. In a deep man's voice, Hinemoa
called out, 'Who is it?' The man replied that he was Tutanekai's slave on a water run. Hinemoa grabbed the
slave's calabash and smashed it to pieces. More slaves came, but she smashed their calabashes too, until finally
Tutanekai came to the pool and demanded that the interloper identify himself − imagine his surprise when it
turned out to be Hinemoa. He secreted her into his hut.
Next morning, after a suspiciously long lie-in, a slave reported that someone was in Tutanekai's bed. The two
lovers were rumbled, and when Hinemoa's superhuman efforts to reach Tutanekai had been revealed, their union
was celebrated.
Descendants of Hinemoa and Tutanekai still live around Rotorua today.
Mountain Biking
