Rotorua is a smallish city on the shores of Lake Rotorua. The surrounding areas are a geothermal wonderland, with geysers, boiling mud pools, and steaming craters - accompanied by the pervasive smell of sulphur.

Rotorua is also a showcase of Maori cultural activities, a centre of tourism and a place of extraordinary natural beauty. It is surrounded by volcanoes, lakes, parks and recreational areas, and is a great place to go hiking or to view native birds and animals; you never know, if you're very lucky, you might even see a Tuatara!

Rotorua is one of the major tourist attractions in the North Island, but despite this, manages to retain some of the charming characteristics of a country town. Their small museum is of particular note in this respect.

One of the major attractions to the fellas of Freaky Styley Disc Golf fame is the mountainbiking - Rotorua has some of the best riding on this planet.

For more information about Rotorua, visit www.nz.com

Scion Tree Nursery Disc Golf Course

Rotorua, New Zealand

Keep up to date with disc golf in Rotorua via the Rotorua Disc Golf Facebook page: go to https://www.facebook.com/RotoruaDiscGolf/

For a 1Mb pdf map of the course (created late 2010), click here.

NOTE to the above - THE LOCAL LADS HAVE TWEAKED HOLE 5 DUE TO CONSTANT FLOODING, SEE http://www.facebook.com/RotoruaDiscGolf/posts/105056082986440 FOR DETAILS, WE WILL UPDATE THESE MAPS WHEN WE CAN. The lads have also done some great work on the tees, onya fellas!

How much does it cost to play? - Nothing! It is free to play this course (one of the few free activities you can partake of in Rotorua) so a big thanks to Scion and Simon Feasey.

As noted below we have a map that can help you and thanks to the local lads you should be able to find the tees in the ground (see image below). Or see if you can contact a local to join you via their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/RotoruaDiscGolf

The local lads have picked up the momentum and created these wonderfull tee marker that are both frisbee fanatic friendly and mower friendly.

Click here to see pages for past Makaripi and Rotorua events: 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2010 NZ Nationals | 2008 NZ Match Play Championships

The 2011 North Island Champs were played on the relatively new Scion Tree Nursery course which - as the name indicates - has a lot do do with Scion, a Crown Research Institute that performs a lot of research on forestry in New Zealand and are world leaders in many areas. As part of their contribution to the community, Scion have kindly permitted a course in a park under their ownership and based on the people we met over the weekend, this generous move will provide a lot of locals and visitors to this tourism Mecca with plenty of good healthy fun. For free!

Whilst the course has previously hosted 2 National Events, this was the first time the Rotorua Championships were held and in 2011 it was the first event on the ever popular New Zealand Tour. It was a fairly low key affair with the focus on some great fun out on a fabulous course and getting the word out to the locals that they can play disc golf in this fine town. "We are working to complete the 18 holes course such that the information is freely available to all." commented Tournament Director Gabb. "With funding support from sponsors we hope to have the existing 12 loan baskets paid for by the end of 2011 as well as installing the other 6 needed, along with informational material so everyone knows where to tee off, the general rules of the game and simply get out there and give it a go."

We wish Gabb and his team the best of luck as this is a true gem that we know will become a great asset to the city of Rotorua at a time when disc golf is growing world-wide and the need for Kiwis to get out and exercise is greater than ever.