This morning we took the puppy of the hostel, Mea for a walk into the nearby fields before we set off for the Coromandel Peninsual along with Rowan and Abby. Our first stop was at Hot Water Beach. Due to volcanic activity below the beach, if you dig a hole down through the sand, hot water comes up to the surface, so with a little work you can create your own thermal hot pool! None of us could really be bothered doing this, we stayed to dipping our feets in the...

We went on a walk this morning with Rowan and Abby to have a look at some of the caves nearby which Waitomo is famous for. On our way back to the hostel we stopped off and witnessed possibly one of the strangest things to see in NZ - Angora Rabbit shearing! Angora rabbits are basically large long haired white and extremely fluffy rabbits. They are first stretched lengthways and have all legs tied up at the front and back so they can't move, and then the cli...

We made our way West this morning to Waitomo. Looking for somewhere to stay we came across possibly the coolest hotel in the world! You were able to stay in an old fighter plane, a train, a ship or even Hobbit houses! We were very tempted stop for the night but unfortunatley we don't have as much money as hobbits so we opted for a hostel down the road. The hostel we found was great though, being the home to several animals as well as backpackers including a pupp...

Rotorua has the highest population of Maori people so tonight we treated ourselves on a trip to a traditional Maori village to experience some of their culture, Tamaki. Our guide, Mark for the night picked us up from the hostel and greeted us all with 'Kia Ora', which in Maori terms means several things, mainly, 'hello and goodbye'. Mark translated this into over 50 languages which was pretty impressive to say the least. There were 4 coaches arriving at the T...

Wai-O-Tapu (Sacred Waters) is NZ's most diverse volcanic area with geothermal activity, lakes, craters and steam vents. Lady Knox Geyser (not pronounced 'Geezer') which erupts daily (with the help of organic soap) and reaches heights of up to 20metres was our first spot before we made our way around the area which took us past huge volcanic craters, mud pools and steaming hot pools which all have an amazing variety of everchanging colours, from illuminous green...