We had a lay in the next day as we only had a couple of hours drive to our next destination, Rotorua. When we got there we went straight to the 'i-site' which are the information centres they have in all the places. This is where we collect all the brochures of stuff to do in the area and ask where the cheapest places to stay are. We were told we could park in a hostel car park and use all their facilities for $9 which is a bargain. We had also heard that Rotorua is an alright night out which we were quite excited about as we hadn't had a night out since Auckland. We sat in the campervan for a bit looking through all the leaflets we had collected and decided we wanted to do white water rafting, visit a Māori village and see all of the geo-thermic areas. We could book all this at the hostel which was a result, and they even threw in a free pizza and a pint when we booked the rafting with them.

We had a few hours to kill before we wanted to get on the beers so we used that time to go and stock up on beers and then went for a dip in the hostel pool for a bit. The receptionist said it was a heated pool, heated was an understatement. It was too hot! We found ourselves sitting on the edge for a couple of minutes every so often just to cool down.

The hostel has a bar linked onto it which is where all the backpackers in the area go out, it's also where we claimed our free pizza and beer. We went for that at 6 ish then went to the hostel kitchen area and drunk the rest of our beers before heading back to the bar. It wasn't as buzzing as we had hoped to say the least but it was a bar, with young people in it and we hadn't had that for nearly a week so it wasn't all bad. We got chatting with a girl from Surrey who was on the 'Kiwi express' bus. She was saying that her bus is really tame, but the bus turning up tomorrow is apparently a lot more lively which sounded promising as we were going to be going out the next night as well after having dinner with the Māori tribe. We also made friends with one of the bar maids who sorted us out with a couple of free shots which was a result.

The next day we went to check out the geo-thermic area. This is an area of land that has been created by volcanic eruptions around 700 years ago. There are 28 different spots to look at, ranging from small waterfalls to quite big lakes you can't even see the surface of as there is so much steam coming off of it. The area smells so bad, due to the amount of sulphur in the land, water and steam. It really made us think how amazing the world really is. Some of the pools were over 100° as they were bubbling, and the signs saying 'Caution 100° water' gave it away as well.

We had been looking forward to this evening as we were to go to a traditional Māori village. We got picked up at 5.40 along with about 25 other people, who had arrived at the hostel on the next 'Kiwi express' bus. On the journey there the tour operator gets everyone to nominate a 'chief', it was a Dutch lads 20th birthday so everybody naturally nominated him. We were taught a few Māori words and what we should say if certain things are said to you. 'Kia Ora' is the main one and it means 'Hello, how are you?' along with 'Goodbye' and a few other things. We pretty much had to say this every time a Māori spoke to us. The other word we had to use was 'Aye' which was pretty straightforward and meant 'Yes'.

When we arrived there was about 150 people in the opening ceremony area. This is where we saw the first Haka war dance performance. We were told that we were not to laugh as it offends them, that's a lot harder than it sounds though, the faces some of them pull are unreal, and lets face it when you get told not to laugh it makes it even harder! The four nominated chiefs off each buss then have to be greeted by the chief of the village, this is done by shaking right hands, placing the left hand on the opposites shoulder and then pressing noses twice.

We were then split into smaller groups where we go to different spots around the village to learn different aspects of their culture. The first one was learning about the Haka war dance, they picked out Tim straight away as a volunteer along with a few others and taught them the basics of the Haka. Along with all the Māori words that we all had to shout out. Some of Tims faces were brilliant. Next we went to the woman section to learn their aspect of dance. The have these sort of balls on string and swing them around bouncing them off their forearms and shoulders and stuff, quite impressive, a few girls in the group were taught the basics of this too. The next two areas we learnt about the wood carvings and weaving. Then the next one was a game they play using sticks about four foot long, Lloyd volunteered straight away along with two American girls. They were taught the Māori words for left and right, then they had to stand in a small triangle with the sticks standing in front of them. The words for left and right were then shouted out and as they heard them they had to let go of their stick and go the way that was shouted out and catch the next persons stick before it hits the ground. The first round was just practice then they had to spread out further, the first one to c*** up was out. Lloyd made it to the final where he and the girl had to stand about 3 metre away from each other, he just won, even though Ben and Tim insist I cheated! The last one was another game with sticks on the floor kind of set up like a hopscotch, Ben put his hand up to volunteer but they didn't see him unfortunately! The idea was to run over the sucks without touching them but the catch was you're not allowed to look down.

A horn was then sounded which meant the feast was ready to be taken out of the ground as it was cooked. The chicken, fish, beef and veg is all cooked underground on hot stones. After all of the food was revealed it was taken away to be served up on the buffet. Whilst this was being done everyone was taken to the performance area where we watched some more Haka war dances, from both the men and woman. They also sung songs, it was quite weird as one of the blokes that was just screaming and sticking his tongue out at you had quite a good voice. They then showed a DVD on a big screen, telling us about a bit more history of the Māori people.

It was then time for the feast, it was massive, and really nice. We hadn't had a roast dinner since we left England, none of us are massive fans of them at home but we really enjoyed it! We got a chance to start chatting with a few of the 'Kiwi experience' people at dinner and arranged to meet them in the hostel bar a bit later, they seemed like a lot better bunch than the night before. The coach ride home was a laugh as the guide got people up doing karaoke, obviously the classic 'Wonderwall' came out straight away. None of us got picked to go up though unfortunately. When we got back to the hostel at around 9 everyone went back to their respective rooms or in our case campa van to get ready to go out. Lloyd and Tim went out but Ben stayed in as he wanted to try and save money. We met up with the two lads that we met earlier and he introduced us to all of the other people on the 'Kiwi experience'. We all got on pretty well and had a lot better night than the night before and with it be the Dutch lads 20th we all made sure he got very drunk to celebrate it. He was doing really well, he had done so many shots and every time someone brought him a beer he would neck it. In the end the bouncers deemed him to drunk and kicked him out, we all gave him massive cheer as they marched him out the bar!

The next day was White Water Rafting day. We were picked up from the hostel at 12.30 along with a couple of other lads, one Scot and one from Leicester. We had a 15 minute drive to the rafting centre where we got chatting to the other two lads. When we got the centre we had a little safety briefing then got given our wetsuits and life jackets etc. We then had another 10 minute drive in a minibus to the start of the rapids. We were told to grab the people who we wanted to be with in the raft so is three and the other two lads stuck together. As there was five of us we were pit in the first raft with 2 guides, as the boat that goes first does all the safety checks on the way down.

Just before we enter the water everyone has to stand and face the water while one of the guides says a Māori prayer then our two guides throw the boat in the river then jump in and go off a little bit, leaving us on the side. So were standing there like 'Erm, wait up!' then they just start shouting 'Jump in and swim!' so we all dive in and swim to the boat and climb in, which is harder than it sounds! Especially later on when you have been rowing for nearly an hour! So once we were all in we start rowing down the river, it's hard to remember what order it was but we went down 15 sets of rapids and three waterfalls! The first couple of water falls were only about 2 or 3 metres and were great fun, even though you do get soaking wet, but that's part of the fun! Every so often we would stop in a calm spot and the guide would teach us some Māori commands, it was good as all five of us were loving the whole experience so when it came to shouting out weird Māori words we wasn't holding back and proper giving it some! Also every so often after we had done a fun part he would make us all stick our oars in the air and shout out 'SWEET AS BRO!' which we have noticed is a common saying for Kiwis. A couple of times we also stopped in a calm place and we had to see who could do the best bomb. We started standing at one end of the boat then had to run through everyone a bounce off the other end of the raft into the water, the Scot was first up with a pretty pathetic attempt which was funny, everyone else's weren't bad efforts though! The best part of the experience was the big waterfall we went down, it is 7 metres high and is the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world, so basically it's the highest waterfall you can raft down without being a professional! It was awesome, none of us knew what to expect when we hit the bottom. We kind of thought the nose would go in then pop up with the rear of the boat following, but no! The whole boat gets completely submerged under the water for a good 4 or 5 seconds! None of us fell out, and when we had got to the surface we were all cheering and screaming! The next boat that came down two people fell out so we had to row up to them and save them! After that we rowed a bit back towards the waterfall and then all of a sudden told us all to jump out and swim as hard as we could towards the rocks on the other side! He wanted to show us how strong the current was! We all made it though, all a bit breathless by the end of the swim though!

At the last set of rapids the guide asked Lloyd and Tim to kneel right at the front of the boat then the other 4 to move up close to them, we then rowed right up to a small rapid then all of a sudden the water would catch the front of the boat and pull Lloyd and Tim right into it and the rear of the boat sticking right up in the air! The power of the water was unreal! Unfortunately after one more small rapid that was the end of the rafting which lasted an hour! We all had to carry the raft out of the water on our heads to the trailer waiting then we all got back on the bus back to the base where got back into dry clothes! As always there is a photographer taking photos of us all the way down, some lf the photos were really good so we went five ways on $35 and brought the CD with all the photos on, Chas goes home soon so he said he would put them on his computer when he gets home and email them all to us! So be ready for them in a month or so!

When we got back to the hostel we made some lunch in the communal kitchen then set of to our next destination Taupo! Home to the biggest lake in the world, Lake Taupo (believe it or not).