Rotorua stoke

Taking a break at the "road tunnels"

It's pretty easy to get kids stoked on riding their bikes.  They don't have to go far, or fast.  They don't require a whole lot of equipment, special clothes, or the latest in nutrition supplements.

Sometimes all that's needed is a ride around the block - or in our case a ride to the "road tunnels".  We've got a big cycle path not far from our house and it passes beneath a roundabout and converges in a cyclepath roundabout... a roundabout within a roundabout.  Anyway, the big deal is that there are five tunnels leading into it.  My kids have a great time zooming in and out of the tunnels, looping around the roundabout and hooting and hollering as they pass through each tunnel.  The local residents must wonder what the hell is going on!

Shralving Puarenga with the kids

Of course, we also go further afield on rides, packing up the car and heading across town to Pukete Farm Park where the Hamilton Mountain Bike Club has built trails for public use, biking on the beginner trails up Sainsbury Road in Pirongia, or taking a longer roadtrip to Rotorua to ride in the Whakarewarewa Forest.

On our last trip to Rotorua the bike riding part was only a small part of our day. We started from the Waipa Mill and headed straight into the Puarenga trail which winds its way alongside a clearwater stream.  The trail twists and turns between rocks and punga trees and there were plenty of interesting things to look at on the way.  Stopping at the Duck Pond for a break, the kids were soon occupying themselves by standing dangerously close to the waters edge and chucking things into the pond.  One slip and... well, we were lucky. We diverted their attention to the snacks we had packed and sat down to refuel for the return journey.

The kids would argue over who went in front, so it's nice to see they each have a competitive streak!  Hopefully that competitive nature will serve them well as they grow up.

Ella on the "hippopotamus log"

With a few kilometers of riding under their tyres, the kids next focus was lunch.  We took a simple picnic to the Museum and sat on the bowling green lawn to eat.  Then we had to choose what to do for the afternoon before we headed home.  Rotorua has lots of off-the-bike activities to do and there was one we thought the kids would love - the Luge.

They really enjoyed the gondola ride to the top, too.  Watching as we got higher and we could see more and more of the city beneath us and out over the big lake.  Getting on the Luge wasn't quite as simple.  Oliver was dead keen (unusal), but Ella didn't want to go near it (even more unusual).  After the boys zoomed off down the track, more coercion was needed to get Ella on the luge cart.  Eventually she was persuaded that the boys would be wondering where we were and they might catch up and pass us on their next go if we didn't go now.  Yay, we were off!

Lunch break

Ella loved it.  I could go as fast as I dared and she just grinned.  We took the detour to check out the dinosaurs and hooned along the track whooping it up.  We caught up to the boys and on our next run down it was a race!  Of course the girls won convincingly and there's been no mention of a rematch yet.

Our simple day trip of biking, a picnic, and luge rides was an awesome way to spend time together as a family and have a lot of  fun.  We'll be back again, for sure.