Take a short 8-minute drive into the Whakarewarewa Redwoods Forest, and experience a walk through hundred-year-old trees. The Redwoods Treewalk in Rotorua takes about 40 minutes to complete although everyone is welcome to take the walk at their own pace. You walk through the tranquil forest across swinging wooden bridges suspended between platforms that hang around the tree trunks. The attraction is open for both day and night walks, and can even be done in wet weather.
Ecological Walk
After a brief safety talk, you are released to ascend the spiral entry ramp up to the first platform.
Each platform can hold about 20 people, with bridges recommended to hold 8. The platform areas are great for taking photos and they also display panels showing the history of and information about the trees.
Tree slings are used to support the platforms and suspension bridges. This means that no nails, screws or bolts are used to support the Redwoods Treewalk structures, and the trees are not harmed.
Redwoods Treewalk by Night
At night the trees are illuminated by hanging lanterns while tree ferns on the forest floor are highlighted in different colours. The lighting gives a soft glow to the forest and the treewalk. As you go around the course, you can’t see very far into the distance and everything is quiet, apart from the other people on the walk with you.
Redwoods Treewalk by Day
By day, you can see the forest floor, the trees and the treewalk clearly. Lighting is great for photos as the sun is filtered by the canopy of the trees overhead.
Day versus Night
If you can’t decide which time of day you would like to do the walk, you can buy a combined ticket that lets you see both day and night. (After the first use, the ticket remains valid for up to three days to allow you to go back and do the walk at a different time of the day)
The bridges bounce
Ok, so if you go in the dark, an important thing you really need to know before taking that first step onto the first bridge….. is that the bridges bounce. If you didn’t know this before taking that first step, and you were a little bit nervous about being up high, you might possibly let out an almighty scream…..
Don’t like heights?
I don’t like being up high, and I found the Redwoods Treewalk challenging, but not terrifying. The height of the regular suspension bridges and platforms is around 9m off the ground. I was relieved to find out that you walk across timber planks on the suspension bridges, which means you can’t see the ground when you look at where you are putting your feet. This makes a big difference, believe me! There is an additional loop that you can take that goes up to 20m high and has mesh panels to walk on. (I was not able to convince myself to do this part).
For those of you who can’t wait to release your inner pirate on the swinging suspension bridges, please do a quick check around you first. If there is some pale-faced person clinging with white knuckles to the handrails and moving slowly across the suspension bridge, chances are they are not as adventurous as you. They will be only too happy to wave you on once they get to the next platform, so have a heart and give them some time to get to safety!
Wet weather?
If you don’t mind getting a little damp, the trees will still be there in the rain. If you can catch a break in between showers while the forest is still wet, even better. There won’t be as many people on the course, and the colours of the forest will be vibrant because of the rain. ( All my daylight photos were taken after the rain )
Altitude
As a separate attraction, and above the existing Redwoods Treewalk, the Altitude course is for the thrill-seekers among you. At 25m high, they take you in harnesses around the 2-hour course which includes zip lines as well as “Indiana Jones” style bridges that you can see down through.
(I’ll just watch you from the scary 9m suspension bridges below, thanks anyway!)
Prices and directions
For more information about the prices and how to get there, you can visit their website.
Where to stay
Rotorua is a great place to stay if you are seeing the Redwood Treewalk.
I stayed at the Sudima Hotel Lake Rotorua, which I can thoroughly recommend to you.
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