On the way out of Rotorua, we stopped at Wai-O-tapu thermal park. It contains lots of carters made by thermal activity, and thermal pools. Many of the pools are all different colours from orange and yellow to blue and green because of the thermal activity. So some partsof the park were beautiful.

When we got to Taupo, we first stopped at Huka Falls - quite a small waterfall (i.e. not high) but with loadds of water gushing through it. I left Taupo the same night and have spent the last two nights staying with Vanessa (who i worked with in Darwin) in Hawke's Bay on the East coast.

Yesterday she did her best to show me the touristy bits of the area. We did a bit of a walk around Napier, which is famous for being mostly built in an art deco style to to the fact that it had to be rebuilt after an earthquake in the 1930s, so it is a tourist spot for that kind of architecture. We also went up to a couple of lookouts - Te mata point that gicves a good view of Hawke's Bay, and Bluff Hill, which has a view of the port of Napier and the sea.

In the afternoon we tried to go for a tour of a cidery (a word i've never come across before but i guess it makes sense based on wineries and breweries!), but their tours don't start til Februray, so that was the end of that idea. so instead we went for lunch and then took Ness's dog to the beach for a bit of a walk.

I'm now back in Taupo, which is all based around Lake Taupo. There's not much to do here if you aren't skydiving or doing watersports and stuff on the lake, so this afternoon I'm just going to sunbathe on the 'beach'. Apparently the lake is notoriously cold, but there's a part called Hot Water Beach, which is warm, so i'm gonna sepnd the afternoon there, before moving on again tomorrow.