Whakarewarewa Redwood Forest

As mentioned in the previous blog, we are staying 7 driving minutes away from the centre of Rotorua (away from the sulphur smell). And just down the street from us is one of many trails leading into the Whakarnewarewa Forest.

This forest is one of the oldest ‘exotic’ forests in New Zealand. It was originally planted in the early 1900’s with 170 different species of trees. Today, only a handful of those original trees remain – but a 6-ha stand of Californian Redwoods continue to grow and they are huge. In the 1970’s, the forest was opened to the public for recreation.

After our tour of Rotorua, we had a few hours to kill before dinner so walked into the forest and followed signs for the Mokopuna Trail. It took us about 1 hr to do the walk as it was 3.6 km long. It is well used and we met people riding their bikes, walking their dogs and just taking a quiet stroll through the woods. Our kids and grandkids would love it.

About halfway around the loop, we came to a Visitors Centre. We had heard about an expensive
night time canopy walk through the redwoods, but we were delighted to learn that we could come back at dusk and do the walk for $30 NZ each. Well, $25 Cdn sounded reasonable to us and it sure looked intriguing! We decided to go.

This award-winning, eco-tourism walk is 700 metres long, has 28 suspension bridges and 27 platforms and takes about 40 minutes to complete. With the height of the walkway ranging between 9-20 metres, we were presented with a magical, birds’ eye perspective of the forest below and treetops above.

I felt that the whole experience was amazing. A light artist from Napier , David Trubridge, had been hired to build and install 30 gorgeous lanterns in the forest and to set up a light show in the trees. Our first wow moment was when we walked on a suspension bridge and were surrounded by ‘fireflies’. An amazing effect. But then, we had many more wow moments.

It was all very amazing and pretty spectacular. We would recommend this walk to anyone who is in the area. I don’t think that the photos will do it justice.

P.S. Chris found a hat!!!Read more