Zorbing!

Jasper and Aidan have wanted to zorb ever since they found out what it was.  (If you don't know, you should read the Wikipedia article.  You'll find out that zorbing is a sport defined by the Concise OED as "a sport in which a participant is secured inside an inner capsule in a large, transparent ball which is then rolled along the ground or down hills."  You'll discover this "sport" was invented in New Zealand, for some reason, and that it was invented, for some reason.)

If you are a regular follower of our blog (Hi, Mom!), then you know that we already tried to satisfy this yen by putting the boys in large plastic balls out on Lake Rotorua, but Jasper's ball sprang a leak and he had what he has been calling his "near-death experience."  Somehow, this didn't put Jasper off the idea of zorbing again, this time in the more traditional manner - down a grassy hill in a plastic ball full of water.

We headed back up to Rotorua, the birthplace of the zorb, last weekend to do a lot of touristy stuff.  We started the day at the zorb hill where we found out three people could ride together in a zorb.  Since we had exactly three people who thought zorbing was a good idea, we signed Evelyn, Aidan, and Jasper up and they changed into their swimsuits (or "togs," as they say in NZ).  They rode a truck up to the top, climbed into a plastic ball with some water in it inside a larger plastic ball filled with air and then people we had paid with real money to push the family down a steep hill gave the ball a shove.

It was very fun, everyone loved it, and I took videos like a good American father should.

We only know one song about zorbing (h/t to Sergio), but you only really need one.  Here is some video footage of the zorb with the boys and their mother singing the zorbing verse of a song by a band named Stornoway called, "Zorbing."  Enjoy!