Yo yo

Roturua home of Geothermal activity and hot hot springs (not to mention the constant pong of sulphur ;-)

Kiwi Encounter ! Finally got see these little b*****s which were actually a lot bigger than we thought ! on the journey through the centre one little beauty was trying to hatch but as this can take up to 5 days we thought it best to leave hin to it. They's so cute but they have a foul attitude so we had to keep our distance ! Fact of the day, Male Kiwi incubate the eggs for over 70 days and the eggs are 6 times larger than a hens despite the birds being the same size ! Ouch.........

Mi Tai. Excellent authentic Maori night. This was brilliant too with a large Hangi (food cooked in a massive underground oven) which was the best meat we've tasted in a long time ! Similar to BBQ but as the rocks are covered with wet sand it is actually steamed so tasty and loads of it too (included stuffing for us brits) Not forgetting pudding Trifkle of course alround a thoroughly enjoyable night with the maddest Haka ever seen ! Glowworm walk through their native rainforest was a nice treat to walk of the 6 helpings of Hangi we had !

Hells gate was a brilliant trip out to bathe in the hot mud (this has to be cooled down for us mortals to get into) Some of the pools are 98 degrees C and others around 75 are used to cook whole pigs !

The Bubbling and mud erruptions were beyond our expectations and provided some cool photo's & video footage ! After this we went to a small animal park "Paradise valley Springs" to see the Lion feeding. These are not pets and made no qualms of having massive fights right infornt of us to establish who was boss, was ace ! The trout river and fresh spring to drink out of were lovely features too so we made sure we took a bottle home with us.

Onwards North to Auckland. Just top cheer you up its been really wet but still walking around in shorts and sandals so not all bad !

Speak soon and hope all are well,

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