....so after Wanaka onto Queenstown, the adventure capital of New Zealand! Here I decided to try skiing for the first time. Had it been anything like ice skating I'd have been in a bit of a pickle as I can't ice skate for toffee...or chocolate truffles for that point! And to begin with I thought It'd be a day of gloom as I failed to move an inch to begin with, much to the ammusement of the rest of the group. But then something clicked and I got the hang of it and was speeding down the slopes by the end of the day, hurrah! I don't think what I was doing was quite technically correct but I didn't really care. After some cocktails in teapots it was back to Christchurch and over to the North Island. Not much to report on Wellington, but a nice museum called Te Papa, meaning our land. Taupo was next on our list, the main attraction being a huge lake the size of Singapore, the island, not just the city! It was in fact a filled in volcano crater and behind it loomed another active volcano. Then onto Rotoura, the smelly town. The area is famous for it's volcanic activity and the smell is due to sulphur released from the earth. At every corner there's steam emerging from the groud as water and mud boils due to a puddle of magma that lurkes beneath it. One evening we went to a Maori cultural evening which was good fun. We received a traditional welcome which consists mainly of a warrior whelding a huge spikey stick while sticking his tounge out at you, bulging his eyes and making rude noises. (We had been informed earlier that by NO means were we allowed to laugh or even smile....!). Later we had a cultural performance of song and dance and then a meal cooked the traditional way underground, apparently. We also saw some real live kiwis when in Rotoura, a real treat especially when you hear that they might be extinct within out lifetime-boo. I feel sorry for the female, she gives birth to an egg the equivilant to a three year old child...ouch! Next stop was Auckland, just for a quick stop over and a visit to Devonport, then we hired a car and took it up to the Bay of Islands for a few days. That was good fun as it allowed us to go where we liked and see things we otherwise couldn't have got to. Then back to Auckland for one last day and night in which we went out for a meal with Johannah and Sandra from the Kiwi Experience to celebrate our travels and say goodbye to New Zealand. I think I may just have to go back someday....