What: Adrenalin pumping high ropes course amongst the Pine Trees, 3 hours to complete as many of the six pathway challenges as you can!
When: Anytime of year (best with little or no wind)
Where: TECT All Terrain Park, located off SH36, the main road link between Tauranga and Rotorua, the park is approximately 20 minutes drive from the outskirts of Tauranga or Rotorua.
How…
Our group of five arrived at Adrenalin Forest just in time to get ahead of a large group booking of 24 (make sure you book first, they will advise if any large groups are booked in as you do not want to get stuck in a long queue of ‘ropers’!
The staff at Adrenalin Forest were super friendly (not too hard on the eyes) and gave a quick but thorough demonstration on safety and equipment basics before directing us towards our warm-up on pathway one – ‘Discovery’.
The ropes forest consists of six pathways which progress in difficulty. Each pathway varies in height and holds a number of different challenges, most of which include you walking, swinging or leaping along an assortment of suspended rope and log obstacles. As you progress through the course the pathways increase in the number of challenges and height and become more physically demanding. Within each course there are also several flying fox sections where you can rest the arms and zoom across to the next step via a flying fox apparatus attached to your harness.
After completely levels one and two with relative ease we decided to skip to level five and get some real adrenalin pumping. At a height of 15m this was a fair jump from the 6m max height in level 2 and substantially harder on the arms! Peer-pressure dominated my slight fear of heights and I found myself well out of my comfort zone walking over tightropes, swinging logs, rope swings and numerous other obstacles suspended at 15m between the pines.
The ground was a sweet sight at the end of level five but with my fear of heights conquered (or over-run by adrenalin) I was now amped for the highest level – 6. Level six wasn’t a huge height jump from Level five at 18m but was definitely more physically demanding drawing upon a lot of core and upper-body strength. On completion of level six the group then returned to complete level 3 and 4. It should be noted that there is a reason for completing the levels in order as the lower levels tend to contain some of the same or very similar obstacles as the higher levels which allows you to discover the best way to conquer the challenge at a lower height before moving upward!
From monkey bridges to spinning logs, spider-nets, suspended oil barrel tunnels and even a snowboard slider, the challenges were a reflection of the great kiwi sense of ingenuity and adventure. With levels to suit all ages and fear levels I would highly recommend this as a fun afternoon out with friends and family or for some good old group/team building!
Why not make a day of it an take along the mountain bikes - TECT All Terrain Park has a range of trails to bike or run with further trail development underway!
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