Funnily enough, an hour down the road, the weather is just as rubbish, so we head to the i-site once again, and ask how to amuse ourselves in the rain. Well prepared, they have a whole printed list, and the lady that talks to us is very friendly. We head to Te Puia, dropping Brent off at the campsite to amuse himself for a few hours.

Highlights: saw our first kiwi (the bird - obviously). It was bigger than we expected, but actually still quite cute with it's little staggering walk. We read every single display, and finally learnt bits about Maori origins and ways of life. Saw a geyser actually spurting, we were told it can get to 30m, sadly we saw it at only 3m - having waited in the rain for 15mins decided this would be good enough!

We had an awesome hot chocolate while we tried to dry out a bit, then witnessed a traditional Maori style welcoming ceremony, complete with Haka. It was great, all apart from the other ignorant tourists that continually chatted throughout, and stood up blocking our view to take photos. The Haka was actually quite intimidating, they bulge their eyes and make random tongue poking and wiggling movements.

Back at the ranch Brent had been in charge of washing and preparing our dinner, which was all done when we got back - bless him. So now with loads of spare time we head to the free hot sulphur pools to warm ourselves up. That evening we opted for the warmth of the cinema - Angels and Demons. A really good film, tons beter than the Da Vinci Code.

Back in the van we rewatch the bungy video - our scream on the way down is hysterical! Had to watch over and over again, until we finally drifted off to sleep. This was a good plan at the time, however we awakened to find that poor Johnny had no battery left and wasn't going anywhere. Oops. Luckily a nice couple, Matt and Jess, who we'd met in the smely pool the previous day, had jump leads on hand and sorted out our issue. So later than planned we arive at the Buried Village.

Little bit of history for you:

June 10th, 1886, and NZs greatest natural disaster - the volcanic eruption of Mount Tarawera. 500,000,000 truckfuls of mud, ash and rocks covered the surrounding areas, including Te Wairoa where we visited. Apparently the locals knew something bad was going to happen. The chief of the town had warned of impending doom due to the town's greed. Thanks to booming tourism in the area they were loaded, and had stopped being self sufficient.

The village itself was not hit by lava, as this could not swim across the lake, but was covered in 5-7ft of ash. Our guide was very informative, showing us around, pointing out the buried buildings, making it all into a little story on the way around. We even went on a little rainforest walk. Our culture done for the day, we decide to head in search of our next crazy outdoor pursuit, on the way stopping for some scenery - Blue and Green Lakes, plus what is left of the volcano, which is not dormant, just sleeping apparently!

Zorbing! with water! We describe it to be like being put in a washing machine. Whoever came up with this idea was genius. As it happens, David (Vivien and David), used to make these crazy plastic balls, and we have it on good authority that the ingredients are: 216 strings, 432 D rings, a good dose of strong glue, and a whole heap of plastic! See, as we said, genius. So we hurtled down the hill in one of these. All over too quickly, but hilarious.