Rotorua - Self-Drive Rail Cars

Our rail cars

Our resort is across Lake Rotorua from town along a canal joining Lake Rororua with Lake Rotoiti creating a serene setting away from the touristy town. It does mean a bit of a drive to stores and restaurants, but that is a small price to pay for the beauty and serenity here.

The Rotorua Resort

Lake Rotorua in the background has whitecaps big enough to be called waves.
It has been windy here this week.

This peaceful canal joins Lakes Rotorua and Roititi

On our first day we chose to partake in the Self-Drive Rail cars tourist attraction. The owners of this railroad line rebuilt the tracks and invented a small rail car capable of carrying four adults independently over 20 kilometers of restored rails. The ‘drivers’ of these heated cars do have a break in case of emergency, but otherwise the car operates at the prescibed speed slowing for potentially dangerous crossings automatically. The cars are constantly monitored by GPS and also include a commentary describing the passing landscape.

The train travels through a forest reserve

Turning the car around

After this fun ride in the early afternoon, we drove to the top of a nearby hill to a restaurant for a look. Too early for dinner, we made a booking and drove down to the lakeside Government Park. Unfortunately, the beautiful and recommended museum is closed indefinitely for renovation. We parked and walked around the park enjoying the several thermal outlets and watching lawn bowlers in some serious matches. We think they were serious since each of the matches had an umpire. We learned a couple of interesting things about the game. Most surprisingly, the balls are not round so the bowler has to release it properly to get it to go. I asked one umpire about this and he said it would be too easy of the balls were round. I was also surprised at how slowly the balls rolled across the grass. Heavy balls over short grass and a hard surface.

The closed museum

One of several Maori pieces

The Blue Pool where we could still have a swim

Steam vents in the middle of the park

Lawn bowling

Dinner was excellent. As the sun retreated we enjoyed the beautiful scene over Lake Rotarua along with a busload of Chinese tourists taking selfies before and after they ate. Arriving a full half hour after we did, they still managed to be done eating and gone before we finished enjoying our meal.

View of the lake and town