Rotorua.....SMELLS! like the worst thing we have ever smelt. Here is is on a geothermic plate so the air is full of sulphur which if you didnt know smells like rotten egg. On the way there we stopped to look at some mud. Very random but it was pretty cool. As you drive along the countryside you can see steam pouring out of the ground and the mud place its just bubbling, boiling mud. looked pretty cool actually.

So we were staying at a hotel called crank and could finally afford a double room. Were nbot used to being back in dorms after all this time in sysney so we splashed out. The hotel had a huge climbing wall and a cinema inside, we had planned to do both untill the cinema had films on that we had never heard of and we both decided not to rock climb as there was no one there to help, didnt really fancy any broken bones.

We eneded up in the tv room hiring out films all day and lazing on the sofas, as boring as it sounds iits so nice to be lazy sometimes.

Anyway, that night we had booked to go to the Mauri Village. When we arrived at the office we were a bit gutted as we were the youngest by a good 40 years but hey ho something different to the drunken nights with people are own age.

So we got on our Weka (canoe in mauri) with Denis the menace the drive. On the way he tolsd us stories and talked us though the evenig. When we arrived all the guys came out doing to the haka and pulling all these crazy faces and a bit of dance. We then walked through a set up of a Mauri village and we got to learn the haka, the womans dance and play traditional games, see how clothes were made and various other things. Next sto was a performance by the poepke dressed up. They do dances the haka and signig and was really good. The fianly stop of the night was for the Hangi feast. Hangi is the traditional was of cooking of the Mauri tribes. The food is cooked under ground for hours and then dug up ready to serve. It was an all you could eat buffet and to our luck there were loads mopre people off the kiwi bus and we were all on one table. Ah we had such a feast, everyone new we were all backpackers as we ate like wild animals. The food was amazing, chicken potatoes, stuffing, salads, bread and to finish, pavlova and sponege and custard. We couldnt move by the time we had finished.

The funiest part was the drive back home, Denis wanted everyone to sing so we went through ancient songs for the american oldies, the scottsh the irish and finished up with she^ll be coming round the mountain while he kept driving around the roundabout. They thought it was hilarious even though they kept saying it was well past their bedtime. Oh what its going to be like to be 70 (sorry grandparents)

Anyway great night but time to get out of this stink bomb