We’ve driven past the Zorb hill on Ngongotaha Road every single time we’ve been to Rotorua. Three trips, three drive-bys, three rounds of “you two should try that” from me and two firm no-thank-yous from the back seat. Big inflatable balls rolling down a hillside look more alarming than fun when you’re eight and ten, apparently.
This trip was different. Somewhere between the car park and the ticket window, both girls decided they were doing it. I have no idea what changed. Neither do they, when I asked.
What Zorb Actually Is, For Anyone Who’s Only Seen the Photos
Zorb was invented in New Zealand back in 1994, and Rotorua is still the only place in the country where you can do it. You climb into a giant clear inflatable ball with about 40 litres of water sloshing around inside, someone zips you in, and you roll down a purpose-built track on the hill. The water keeps the ride from being as violent as it looks from the outside — you slide around inside the ball rather than tumbling head over heels, which is the bit that had put my kids off in the first place. Turns out that’s exactly the bit that makes it work.
There are four tracks to choose from now, which is more than there used to be. The Straight Track is 250 metres, smooth and fast, and set up as a dual lane so you can race whoever’s in the other ball. The Sidewinder is the one to brag about afterwards — 350 metres with six sharp corner banks, and it’s marketed as the longest zorbing track in the world, for whatever that’s worth to an eight-year-old (quite a lot, as it turns out). MEGA is the newest thrill option: steepest, fastest, and apparently the one with the best view over Lake Rotorua and Mokoia Island on the way up in the shuttle. And Pipeline winds through a stand of trees before finishing on a curved half-pipe, so it’s more playful than pure speed.
Choosing Where to Start
We put both kids on the Straight Track first, mostly because it sounded the least frightening on paper. That was the right call. It’s short enough that any nerves don’t have time to build, and racing each other down gave them something to focus on other than “I am inside a giant ball rolling down a hill,” which is a genuinely strange sentence to process for the first time.
By the second ride they wanted the Sidewinder. By the third, they were arguing over who got to go on Pipeline. We ended up doing three rides each and then went back for a fourth because nobody was ready to stop, which blew our loosely planned “one quick stop on the way through Rotorua” schedule by about ninety minutes. Worth it.
What It Actually Feels Like Inside
It’s louder than you’d expect, and wetter. You genuinely can’t tell which way is up for a lot of the ride, which is the entire point — that’s what stops it from being a straightforward slide and turns it into the slightly chaotic, laughing-until-it-hurts thing it’s known for. My older daughter came out of the Sidewinder saying it felt like being inside a washing machine, which is about as accurate a description as I’ve heard.
We went on a cool, sunless day in late spring, and the water in the ball was warm rather than cold — apparently they adjust the temperature seasonally, warmer in winter and cooler in summer, which made a noticeable difference to how comfortable the ride was. If you’re going in the middle of a hot Australian-summer-style day instead, expect the opposite.
The Bit That Surprised Me More Than the Ride Did
Between rides, there’s a shuttle van that takes you back to the top, and while you wait there are hot tubs at the bottom of the hill to sit in. This is not a small detail if you’re standing around in wet clothes on a chilly day. There are heated changing rooms too, and a sauna, which felt like a genuinely thoughtful addition rather than a gimmick — by our third ride the girls were happy to sit and soak rather than get straight back in the queue, which slowed us down in the nicest possible way.
Practical Things Worth Knowing Before You Go
Bring swimmers. You will get wet, properly wet, not “a bit splashed” wet. We hadn’t planned well enough and ended up paying for towel and shirt hire, which is available on-site for a small fee — worth budgeting for if you’re travelling light or heading somewhere else afterwards.
Kids need to be at least five years old to ride, and there’s no height restriction, though riders over a certain weight need to go solo rather than sharing a ball. It’s worth checking the current rules if you’ve got a bigger teenager or an adult wanting to ride together, since the shared-ball limit is lower than the solo one.
It runs rain or shine, and closes only for high winds, lightning, or Christmas Day — so a grey Rotorua morning isn’t a reason to skip it, which we were glad to learn given how much of our own trip was overcast. Booking ahead isn’t compulsory, but it’s a sensible idea during school holidays and over summer weekends, when the queue for the shuttle can build up.
Was It Worth Building Into the Trip
Given how long we’d been driving past it, saying yes, easily. It’s not a long stop — even with four rides each and a soak in the hot tub, we were in and out inside two hours — and it slots naturally into a Rotorua day that also includes the geothermal parks and the lakefront, without needing a whole day of its own.
If you’re mapping out a New Zealand leg around the Australian school holidays, Rotorua is an easy add-on to a North Island itinerary, and Zorb is the kind of thing that works whether your kids are cautious first-timers like mine or the sort who’d have run straight in on trip one. For more single-visit write-ups in the same “what to actually expect” spirit, our reviews of the Royal Adelaide Show and Koala Park in West Pennant Hills cover other family outings worth knowing the practical details on before you turn up. And if you’re after more ideas for filling out the rest of the holidays, our things-to-do directory is worth a browse.