So we have now made massive progress in N.Z, and are half way down the South island already.

In Rotoroa (we stayed here for 4 nights) we also went to an Irish pub quiz (and lost - badly), the rafting was wicked-this is Lee's fav activity so far, I went Zorbing. Zorbing was ace fun, you roll down a hill in a giant bubble ball full of warm water, theres one in the U.K somewhere for anyone who fancies a try! We went to the Irish pub here a lot as the food was great and they did proper pints without loads of head, which N.Z's seem to like, we'd rather more beer! We also went to an outside spa, the Polynesian spa, which was supplied by the weird thermal volcanic activity here, it smelt rather interesting too (rotten eggs again).

Tuesday 26th Oct we left Rotoroa and joined another Kiwi bus, which we are still with as everyone has groupied up together. From Rot, we went to a guyser park where we saw 3 guysers shooting hot water 15m into the air and real life Kiwi birds in an enclosure. We set off for Waitomo, on the way we stopped off at the bunny shearing shed. The ladies here bred Angora rabbits, which produce a very expensive wool, how they retrieved the wool was quite funny as they suspend the rabbits into a sort of torture contraption and strip the poor b u g g e r s  bald! That night we had a barbie and hit the pub. That turned out to be a very big disadvantage for me in the morning when we were up at 6:30 to go on our 'Abyss' trip (the black caves) When the bus picked us up and I was still puking I didnt feel too clever. Luckily the freezing cold water and intensity of the trip wore away the hangover. We abseiled 35m into the bottom of a pitch black cave which was massive (we were underground for 3 hours). Here we did a zip line in the dark, we did have torches but were told to turn them off and had no idea what they were strapping us to.   We then rafted along the water in inner tubes looking at the glow worms before climbing up 3 waterfalls, it was definately the best day so far. That night it was Lees stag do!!! (just a pretend one, and he was picked haha) - check out what the stag lads kitted him out in!!!!

We then arrived in Taupo and went prawn fishing which was amazing fun and Smilz caught 2 little beasts, which the restaurant cooked for me to eat. We learnt everything there is to know about prawns and prawn farming. We went on the huka speed jet boat which was very wet as he kept spinning doughnuts.

Onto River Valley where we had cooked chicken dinner with stuffing gorgeous, and played poker, which Smilz learnt in Fiji and a new drinking game -flip cup.

Then Wellington. We didnt do much here, went to another museum and the cinema twice.

We got the ferry to Nelson, a 3 hr crossing, still with our bus load. We stayed at a really nice 5* place which cost the same as the other hostels, again a lovely roast beef dinner.

Onto Westport where we did another barbie, I got quite drunk again, thought I was a witch as I found a brush and jumped off the varander, is this normal behaviour?and scraped my knees - again!! There totally cursed!

Lake Mahinapua, which turned out to be a very interesting little place. It was run by Les, an 82yr old guy with a major passion for life and partying. He cooked us all steak for tea, before the party that night. He didnt go to bed until 4am that night - party animal at 82! He was so lovely and looked like Santa Clause (see pic). The bar was done out with hats from every bus that had stopped off, which is one every night! and on the walls there was a group photo of each bus party. This party was the funniest party Ive ever been to in my entire life!!!!!!!!!! as you will see from the pics.

We arrived in Franz Josef yesterday, everyone feeling a little rough suprisingly!, especially the lads. Today we climbed the Franz Josef glacier, a 6hr hike. We were 500m up on this immense glacier, in the rain however as it has been raining all day. It was a tough hike but the clamps on our boots made you stick in the ice no bothers.  Tonight we are celebrating bonfire night with a packet of sparklers and then tomorrow we leave for Wanaka.