There’s something about the great tradition of taking your family on the road; – throwing everything you need and a couple of spares you probably don’t – into the boot and setting off into the great pre-booked. I, however, face TWC (Travelling With Children) with some degree of trepidation. I can barely get them to eat, wash and sleep properly when they’re on home ground let alone playing away. But, with the fountain of well-wishes that is my hope springing eternal, I packed the car and set off with my family on our road trip to Rotorua.
I needn’t have worried. We had the BEST time! I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again – now I’ve finished all the laundry – or recommend people take their family to Rotorua. It is far enough to feel like you’re going somewhere quite different, yet close enough to get there by lunchtime and not go stir crazy; although, having said that, my children reached Peak Travel by Tahuna. Car snacks and plenty of rest stops go a long way to ensuring parental sanity.
Here are some photos from our road trip to show you some highlights from the trip.
Below: Cute kids, at Fitzgerald Glade.
Below: Workmans Cafe, Matamata.
Below: Nice job on the Hobbiton Lord of the Rings-style information centre, Matamata.
Millennium Hotel
We stayed as guests of Millennium Hotel and you couldn’t have asked for a more convenient location adjacent to Polynesian Spa and the lake, and walking distance to the bath house museum and parks, as well as the city centre. The view was a-ma-zing. Here’s the geothermal steam rising up, first thing in the morning.
We actually got the two-adjoining-rooms action going on where you can open or close the children’s door. I advise you to hide the minibar chocolates from them though! The room had a desk, big TV in each, and tea and coffee and fridge. We crashed out and watched the comedy movie ‘Couples Retreat’ which I thought was pretty apt. Art mirroring life, and all that.
Another thing I liked about Millennium was the two spa pools next to the gym area, and the massive swimming pool by the dining room. The children loved swimming in here both days and it was so convenient to walk downstairs to. There was a small gym which we both used, and there was a beauty spa on site too.
Polynesian Spa
A definite highlight of our weekend was our trips to Polynesian Spa. It’s recently been improved, and has lots of facials and treatments to try – I chose the Priori Coffeeberry Facial with Ayuko, who was fabulous – as well as the outdoor rock garden pools and indoor family pool with concrete waterslide, both of which the children really enjoyed.
Aix therapy
I was lucky enough to have the amazing experience of an Aix therapy massage at Polynesian Spa too. What is the Aix, you ask? It’s a relaxing massage with three main components: firstly, you are coated with a scrub of your choice, then the water jets wash it off, and it ends with a massage of body oils. It is pronounced the same way as “aches” they explained to me; i.e. an aix to take away the aches. Read more about it in my review here.
Skyline Gondolas
The weather played the game on Sunday afternoon and cleared beautifully for us to see right across the lake and a good view of Mokoia island in the middle of the lake. It was stunning.For the adventurous, there’s an amazing-looking mountain biketrack down the mountain with various levels of track difficulty and I saw some older children riding with their parents. www.skyline.co.nz
Below: riding up to the top of the mountain in a gondola.
There were a few fun things to do at the top, such as browse the Jelly Belly jellybeans shop, eat lunch, look at the gift shop but we particularly loved the view and did the very short cherry blossom nature walk, and was surprised to come across these fabulous woolly alpacas which the children adored.
Lunch at Art of the Grill
We had a buffet lunch at the top of the mountain at their newly renovated restaurant, Art of the Grill, with the most incredible views, and very cool David Trubridge wooden light fittings, and a massive space that seats up to 500! The grilled meats bar was awesome.
It felt like we were in an apres ski restaurant. It was great that the kids were able to choose what they liked, and there’s something for everyone.
Volcanic Hills winery tasting room
A highlight was discovering Volcanic Hills winery and meeting owners Sean Beer, and Brent, who have a heritage of experience at some of New Zealand’s top wine brands and combine their strengths in this very cool label. The winery sources the best grapes from regions of New Zealand and creates the wine on site here in Rotorua. You can actually visit the winery and see the barrels and hear about the process, just to the left of the Skyline gondolas carpark. The giant rusted red iron VH logo is really striking and stylish and I liked that it all had great design and didn’t look ‘touristy’ at all but very contemporary in its design. The wine tastes great and the sav blanc is my fave!
PICNIC Cafe
We really enjoyed Picnic cafe for brunch on our last morning. My life hack when eating with children who just like bacon: order your breakfast and then get two sides of bacon (extra $4) and they can eat that! Problem solved; thank me later. Some other recommendations of cafes to go to with the kids are Lime Café, Fat Dog, Abracadabra, and Third Place.
Rotorua was a blast – and I hope to back soon.
Megan Robinson
23rd September 2014
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