Well, golly gosh, it hardly seems like 12 months have passed since we all enjoyed Christmas lunch at Vilagrad Winery at Ohaupo, but here we are already at Christmas for 2025 and yesterday we celebrated with 21 members of Midland Mercedes-Benz Car Club at the Skyline Gondola and Restaurant at the top of Mt. Ngongotaha at Rotorua.
In weather typical of the Bay of Plenty at this time of the year, we were able to enjoy an almost cloudless day with temperatures hovering around 25.0deg. as we all assembled together at the Gondola terminal at the base of this iconic tourist destination for the ride to the restaurant at the top.
Sharing Gondola’s with friends, we all boarded amongst young blokes and blokess’s with mountain bikes to travel in utter silence as we travelled up to the restaurant. If you have never travelled in a cable hauled Gondola, it is a unique experience as it rattles out of the terminal to suddenly become sound and rattle free as it’s hauled skywards. Riders talked in hushed tones as we were elevated in silence to the summit. Some were too absorbed in the experience to look down, preferring the upward view without the vertigo some folk experience if they look down.
Watching the youngsters on the luge, or on mountain bikes as they hurtle downwards without fear, at speeds getting close to breaking the sound barrier, makes one grip the edge of your seat in trepidation as you watch.
The exhilarating ride is soon over and you arrive all too soon at the terminal and disembark. President Gary Lewis soon had us all herded together and into the restaurant for lunch, seated at large tables and admiring the view from Hamurana to the north across Lake Rotorua and Mokoia Island to the mountain of Tarawera with it’s huge volcanic slash as the crater, drinks were ordered as we settled into the day.
The Skyline Restaurant is a tourist mecca, with several large coaches parked at the Gondola base and their passenger groups already well into the huge array of hot and cold food available. The soup dishes were a creamed veggie soup and a Korean soup that had chilli flakes to sprinkle on it, quite an unusual taste but very nice. The range of food went from cold meats, including ham, salami’s and chicken, everything you could imagine, plus some, to hot roast beef, roast veggies, chicken or fish, pasta’s, salads, plus desserts from kiwi pavlova, lamington’s, four ice cream flavours chocolate mousse and strawberry jelly! An absolute delight!
So as responsible drivers, we had Ginger Beer or Lemonade, but the passengers enjoyed a range of wines and beer that were available and all at realistic pricing, so a lovely lunch out without having to use the car as collateral for a loan to pay for it.
Thank you president Gary Lewis for this very enjoyable Christmas lunch that you organised for us. Seasons greetings to you all!
Cheers, Greg Sheehan.