Even though we visited Rotorua in the fall, we planned two water activities in this geothermal town. One of them being a white water rafting expedition with Kaituna Cascades (our first and almost last), the other one a zorb adventure. Yep, we’re two thrill seekers! OK, maybe one of us is just pretending at times, but from one wannabe thrill seeker to another: zorbing is the perfect adventure activity for us. Quite daring, but nothing compared to bungy jumping.
Keep reading to find out more about our unique zorb adventure with OGO in Rotorua.
What is Zorbing?
You might be wondering what zorbing is. Well, it’s an adventure activity, an extreme sport, invented and commercialized in New Zealand. It’s a mildly extreme sport though, not nearly as adventurous as bungy jumping for example. Nevertheless, it’s a lot of fun! When you go zorbing, you basically will be rolling down a hill in a transparent plastic ball, or orb. A hill is no requirement for zorbing though, you can do it on a flat area or even on water as well. Sounds awesome, right? Oh. Then we’ll try to convince you in the last section, when discussing our zorb adventure with OGO in Rotorua.
Zorbing in Rotorua
There are two companies in Rotorua where you can go zorbing: ZORB Rotorua and OGO Rotorua. ZORB Rotorua is the original company, started by the inventors of zorbing. They sold it though, and started OGO (Outdoor Gravity Orb) Rotorua a couple of years later. They offer more or less the same (including a hot tub to warm up before or after your ride), but ZORB seems to be slightly cheaper.
There are some other differences between the two, besides the price. Both ZORB and OGO have a straight and a winding track to choose from, but on top of that ZORB has another track called “The Drop“. We haven’t tried it, but the name is self-explanatory I guess. They both have a wet and dry option, offering you the choice to have water inside your orb or being secured inside your orb in a harness. Both offer solo and team experiences, allowing up to 3 people in 1 orb. Beware though, with ZORB you can only have a team experience on the straight track, called the Fast Lane. With OGO on the other hand, you can have a team experience on both the straight track and the winding track.
For our zorb adventure, we went with OGO in Rotorua. We bought our tickets through BookMe NZ, paying NZ$90 for the H2OGO Sidewinder for two. That’s NZ$10 less than we would have paid when booking through the OGO website. For up to date pricing information, we recommend checking out the company websites: ZORB and OGO. In the next section we’ll tell you all about our zorb adventure with OGO in Rotorua.
Our Zorb Adventure with OGO in Rotorua
Which company to go with for your zorb adventure is entirely up to you, but to give you an idea we’ll tell you all about our experience with OGO in Rotorua here.
All stoked for our first zorbing adventure, we drove our campervan up to the OGO Rotorua site, a 10 minute drive from the city centre. We got a friendly welcome and were pointed to the changing cabins to get out of our clothes in into our swimwear. We booked the H2OGO Sidewinder, and would be stepping into a big air-inflated ball that has 40 litres of water (heated in winter) on the bottom. No chance of keeping it dry. They have shorts, T-shirts and towels available for hire, but it’s cheaper to bring your own. The changing cabins are pretty nice btw, they even have hairdryers.
When we were ready to roll (pun intended), we were taken up the hill in a car. You can leave all your stuff at the OGO office, because that’s where you’ll be rolling towards again. If you’re wearing glasses, better leave them down there too, you don’t want to break them. On top of the hill we stepped in the big plastic ball. There we were, laying side by side in a couple of centimetres of water.
The OGO crew gave us a push and we started rolling slowly. We weren’t speeding up and could perfectly say when we were reaching a turn. Boring! After the first turn though, our “Is this it?” changed into “Waaaaaaah! What’s happening?!” (in a good way). The ball was rolling pretty fast now, and we were sloshing around, not sure where our hands or feet were. We finally knew how clothes in a washing machine must feel. We had a blast!
You can bring your own waterproof camera, or take the OGO GoPro with you inside the orb for free. As our GoPro broke during our last dive in the Great Barrier Reef, we took a OGO GoPro with us in the plastic ball. They’ll take some more pictures when you get down and out of the ball, including an obligatory jump shot. However, we decided not to buy the video and photos. The GoPro footage was blurry, and I’m no bikini model. It wasn’t very sunny (at all), so we did enjoy a dip in the hot tub to get warm. There even was a small wood stove, cosy!
We had a great time zorbing with OGO in Rotorua, and would definitely recommend you to have a go too! We opted for the H2OGO Sidewinder (the longest in the world btw) instead of the Straight Track, because winding is more fun and lasts longer than straight down. The Straight Track is cheaper though. Your choice.
Have you been zorbing before? In Rotorua as well, or somewhere else? What did you think: must do or waste of money? We would love to read about your experience in the comments!
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Omg that looks like so much fun but I don’t know if i’d be able to do it!
It was awesome, Melody! It’s not scary at all, so you can definitely do it. 😉 You’re just shaken around at the bottom of the plastic ball, not even doing summersaults or anything.