Working our way North to Rotorua on the thermal highway we stop at a campsite that happened to has a thermal spring running through it. The lady at the gate tells us it's really nice in the evening with 2 bathing spots: one at 36C and the other at 32C. She didnt need to tell us twice! As soon as tents were up we were back in wet swimmers (still wet from kayaking) and armed with a box of tinnies headed to the stream. The first bathing spot seemed to have a naked couple in so not wanting to intrude we carried on to the 2nd bathing spot. Wow! It was lovely. As the air temp dropped a little steam could be seen coming off the stream and this all added to the relaxing atmosphere as long as you didnt mind the mild smell of eggs (sulphur). The following morning we were back in the stream before breako. I could get used to this!

Back on the road we past steaming areas and eggie smells before reaching Roturua. Keeping in the theme of relaxing, sulphur and thermals we went to Hells Gate which has a thermal walk way past steaming pots, lakes and bubbling mud along with a mud bath and sulpher soak. The egg smell was much stronger here, encouraging us to keep walking to get to the mud bath. After 20mins in a hot mud bath coating ourselves in fine mud from the Maori medicinal lake we then had a cold shower. Hearing the screams from others who had gone in the cold shower before us made us a tad nervous. It definitley was a little shock to the system but we managed to be brave. Next was the sulphur soak, hot but very nice! We then headed back into town for some refreshment and heard of the shocking and terrible news of the Christchurch earthquake. Live footage was being streamed on TV in a few bars.

White water rafting was next on the agenda but unformatunaly as Andy's neck was still sore he declined. Alex and I were driven for 1hrs 30mins out of town where we then got togged up with thick wet suits, life vests and helmets. We then had a few paddle & survival lessons before heading to the first set of rapids named Rock A. This was grade 4 rapids so we were straight in at the deep end but our guide Nev knew the river very well and got us into position well. The second set of rapids known as Rock B also grade 4 was where things went a little wrong. It was bumpy and sat on the edge of the dingy meant you are in a pecarious position if boucing about. Alex unluckily bouced out of the kayak and into the water half way down. When he came to the surface he looked a little dazed. Nev's steering tactics then changed to delaying the raft going down the raft to help Alex get back in. This meant we were all over the place whilst Alex was instructed to "SWIM!, SWIM HARD". His head kept bobbing under the white water as he followed us down the rapids. After a minute or two the rescue kayak reached him. Instructed to grab hold of the front Alex then seemed to be a buffer the kayak from the rocks down the rest of rapids. Once back in boat Alex was referred to as "The Swimmer" for the remainder of the river. The rapids after that were a tad easier but you still needed to be carefull of getting twigs or branches in the face.

Making our way towards Auckland we stopped off at the Hot Sands beach which as the name suggests had hot sands! During 2 hours either side of low tide a smallish section of beach was available for you to dig shallow pools that would fill up with thermal spring water. It got pretty hot with temps up to 64C so not surprisingly there was a section in the middle steaming where no one had dug a pool.