Zorb

One of the activities we (OK, well, me) were keen to try in New Zealand was the Kiwi-invented activity of Zorbing. For those not familiar with Kiwi adventure sports, Zorbing entails placing yourself inside a PVC ball inside another PVC ball and the two balls are connected by bungy cords. Once inside the ball, you proceed to roll down a hill, bouncing every which way along the way. There are two variations - wet and dry. The dry version entails strapping yourself inside the ball so that you go head over heels, etc. Unfortunately all the dry zorbs were out for repair while we were there so we only had the option of the wet version. The wet version entails water being in the ball with you, so that the experience is equivalent to a waterslide that you bounce inside of.

The runs were about 150-200 meters in length. For the first ride, Karen and I went together down the straight run. I enjoyed it so much that I then decided to sign up for the solo run down the zigzag track. That was even more fun, especially as you try to stand up along the way, which is nigh impossible. I had a blast zorbing.

On a side note, the service in New Zealand leaves a lot to be desired, with many a diffident waitress and other service staff. The staff at the Zorb place were typical, with the first girl taking 15 minutes just to get us paid for and signed in. And then when I went back for a second ride, the other girl was in the process of telling some potential new customers that the wait was over an hour, even though the main reason I went back for a second ride was because there was no queue at all. She then took a further 20 minutes to take my second payment. So, NZ has two areas to improve upon - service levels and driving skills.

Here's a pic of my fellow Zorbonaut, Karen, before our run, with a Zorb and the hill we run down in the background.



That's me inside that Zorb coming down the zigzag track.



Here's me after my second Zorb bath of the day.



The Zorb place is actually located on a farm that also features a sheep shearing show (say that 10 times real quick) that we saw. The show was OK, but since NZ is know for its sheep (sheep (40 million) outnumber people (4 million) 10 to 1), we figured we'd might as well watch it. Here's a pic of the 19 varieties of sheep in NZ, including the huge and regal Merino sheep, at the top of the pile.



One of the other things I enjoyed seeing in NZ was the enormous kauri tree. Kauri trees used to be extremely common in the North Island, but since they grew almost straight, had very few branches on the trunk, were very solid, and provided a massive amount of wood per tree, they were almost logged out of existence. Fortunately a few remain and there are replanting programs to bring them back. Unfortunately they take hundreds of years to grow to full size, so it'll be a while before you see large forests of full-grown ones. I'm not sure, but I think they're even bigger than the redwoods in California. This one here is the largest in NZ and is over 50 meters tall and the trunk girth is an amazing 13.8 meters.