A new eco-tourism operation offers a different perspective on our native forestry by sending customers zooming through it on a zip-line cable.
Rotorua Canopy Tours opened at the weekend to become New Zealand's first zip-line tour through the native tree canopy.
The operation, painstakingly developed in a 500ha block of ancient virgin forest, is also serving as an ambitious conservation effort to lure back several species of native birds.
Former tourism manager James Fitzgerald had the idea four years ago, after reading about the popularity of zip-lining in Central America.
He teamed up with an old friend, Andrew Blackford, a structural engineer and thrill-seeker, and the pair spent hundreds of hours in the forest mapping out an aerial route that would leave its towering trees untouched.