Wednesday 12th January Hahei to Roturua

Another early start today.Ant and I hit the showers at 6:00 am to avoid the crowds, had breakfast, packed up and the bus left at 7:30am for the 3 hour drive to Roturua.We had one stop on route (for coffee and toilets of course!) at a place called Paeroa.The place is famous for a drink called "L&P" (lemon and Paeroa) made from the local spring water - it is owned by Coca Cola now of course!!

We arrived at our accommodation in central Roturua just after 11:00 am to drop off our bags before heading out to Whakarewarewa - a living thermal village.The whole of New Zealand sits on a massive fault line and so is subject to earthquakes, volcanoes and geo-thermal activity.This means there are hot springs, steam and geysers everywhere.Whakarewarewa sits in such an area and is still inhabited today by descendants of the original settlers.The village is open to the public for tours but is also home to about 65 members of the Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao.They use the natural hot springs and steam vents for cooking and bathing.After our tour, we were served a traditional Hangi lunch which we had watched being cooked in the hot pools and steam boxes.This basically consisted of corn, carrots and cabbage that we saw being boiled in the hot springs, and potatoes, chicken and corned beef that were cooked in the steam boxes.We also saw a geyser erupting.The finale was a performance of Maori singing and dancing (with audience participation!!)

In the afternoon Ant had arranged to go white water rafting over 3 waterfalls (the largest being a 7m / 21 foot drop).Over lunch he discovered it was a class 5 white water river which is the highest class and the 7m drop is the highest, commercially raftable waterfall in the world!!!He had no voice for 3 days after all the screaming.I had a more sedate afternoon taking a walk in the local park to the lake and sitting having coffee with Jana.

Our accommodation is a backpackers hostel in the centre of town so there are lots of restaurants around.Most people went to a place called Fat Dog as it is famous for large portions. Ant, Jana and I preferred the Indian restaurant next door as we are missing curry!!!

Thursday 13th January Rotorua to Whakahoro

Ant and I are not too impressed at having to share bedrooms (and bathrooms) with strangers!!!Having had a relatively sleepless night we have asked for an upgrade to doubles for the rest of the trip (extra money but worth it for the privacy - we weren't aware this was an option when we booked).We didn't get an upgrade for tonight; however, there was no fighting for the bathroom this morning as we headed for a swim in a natural hot river so no one bothered to have a shower.

We dressed in our swimming costumes and once again boarded Mrs Bayley at 7:30 am and headed for the river.We have picked up another passenger overnight, a young girl called Sophie who had some problems with her tour operator booking her onto wrong tours and wrong flights. She is very distraught poor girl.On route to the hot river we stopped to take photographs of a bubbling mud pool. The hot river was amazing - it was just like stepping into a hot bath at home!!However, if you swam or stepped in the wrong direction it got very cold!!A few of the guys played Frisbie in there.It was quite difficult to get dried and dressed afterwards as the only changing rooms were bushes or Mrs Bayley (which us ladies commandeered for our changing room).Because the river is fed from natural hot springs it is very sulphurous so you can imagine the smell on the bus!!!

Back on the bus, we stopped for coffee at LakeTaupo, a lovely little town on the shores of the lake of the same name.LakeTaupo is the biggest lake in Australasia and is about the same size as Singapore.After another short stop at the supermarket for lunch and to stock up on booze for tonight, we headed for our final destination for the day, Blue Duck Lodge.The lodge is in the middle of a national park wilderness area so no mobile phones or internet!!!The lodge and all the surrounding farmland (hundreds of acres) are owned by Dan Steele, his wife Sandy and their 2 week old baby boy, Blue.Our rooms are lovely little wooden chalets that sleep 6, we are sharing with Eric and Alysse again and Sophie has also joined us.Unfortunately there are only 2 showers and toilets for 20 of us so it's going to be interesting trying to get cleaned up for dinner!!Ant and 5 others headed off for a kayaking trip (as if he hadn't had enough yesterday).I decided to give it a miss when I found out it was rapids again (although only grade 1 and 2 this time).Apparently Ant managed to abseil into a blackberry bush getting down to the river (lol).Myself and 13 others joined Dan and his PA Wendy on Polaris Quad jeeps for a tour of the farm and mountains.Dan is an amazing, enthusiastic conservationist and is trying to return the land back to its natural state and protect the local wildlife.They currently farm sheep and beef there but are starting to move into eco-tourism and the manufacture of Manuka honey.They also trap and hunt a lot of vermin (rats, cats, hedgehogs) and predators such wild pigs and goats.He took us up into the mountains and a site where he is planning on building an eco-lodge.It is so isolated that he will have to use his helicopter to ship supplies up there.He will use wind and solar power to heat it and provide electricity and water.After the tour, he dropped us at the top of a waterfall where we climbed/abseiled down into a gorge and kayaked up to a waterfall.We were absolutely black with dust when we got back to the lodge and 14 of us had to fight over 2 showers before dinner (the others had been back for ages and were already showered and tucking into the beers!!!

Dinner this evening was goat curry (the local wild goat), cooked by an Irish couple who help Dan out by running the Blue Duck café just down the hill.The veggie option was dahl, plus vegetable pasta bake, salad, coleslaw and garlic bread!!! We are being well fed on this trip.Lucky provided some bubbles and a kiwi pavlova and we had another party!!!We need to get to bed early tonight as we have a very strenuous day tomorrow.