Luge!

Today we relived Hannah's childhood trip to NZ with a ride on the Rotorua Luge. 5 rides in fact, in the pouring rain...

We brought our gore-tex coats and trousers half-way round the world, and carried them up pretty much every mountain that we've seen in the last 7 weeks. So do you think that we had them when the heavens opened on a city-centre tourist attraction..? Surprisingly Yes! ;-) So we were by far the driest people out there. This included the people who'd bought the obligatory tourist ponchos which turn into wind-socks at 15 kmph!

Not that there were many brave souls, which made it all the better. No slow people to get in the way of our racing ;-) Also, the rain made the brakes pretty dodgy, so it was getting more and more exciting.

So what is the Luge? we hear you ask... Imagine a child's sledge with wheels steering and brakes (well brakes in the dry perhaps). Then launch it down a concrete roadway complete with chicanes, banked corners and helpful advice to slow down (how?!)

Speeds of 30 kmph felt rather fast at 2 inches off the floor. No photos I'm afraid as it was too wet.

To complete the adrenaline rush, we went on the skyswing, where you are strapped into an seat and winched back to a height of 50m and then dropped by pulling your own cord after the countdown "three - tw.. AARRRGH!" (Hannah decided that we'd been hanging around long enough - hopefully she will never get a job at Cape Canaveral).