Duck Attack We left Rotorua this morning to head to the Waitomo caves to see some glowworms and do a spot of black water rafting - mostly gentle tubing and wadding through some cool caves but with some jumping backward over waterfalls into the caves in the pitch black!! As we had a little time, we took a drive through the hyped, scenic town of Cambridge (nothing to write home about) and stopped in at the beautiful, extensive Hamilton Gardens. We settled down by...

Lights, Camera and ... Doing the sites around Rotorua, lead us down towards Lake Taipo today. First stop the impressively blue Huka Falls churning water at a rate of knots. Then onto the Aratiatia Rapids also known to be spectacular. They have been damned to provide hydroelectric power. However four times a day the water is released to recreate the spectacle. We heard the three warning bells as we had been warned and Dann was poised ready with the camera for t...

The world's largest garlic clove and the world's smallest wine glass. We won't be getting drunk tonight but also luckily we are safe from vampires too. Making full use our kitchen at the Rotorua Motel. The place is decorated like it's still the 70s but our lamb doesn't mind. Bon Appétit LZ & DW

Devonport Doillies We picked up our NZ hire car this morning in Auckland and couldn't wait to get started with our driving tour of the country and first the city. First stop La Cigale, a cool French market in Parnell for a yummy coffee and some provisions. Then off to Devonport, north of the city centre for a pootle through the genteel harbour village within the city. So genteel that the lampposts along the main street were all decorated with their own knitted...

Any guesses what this is??? For those that said moon - half a point. It's actually a photo of the moon taken with my iPhone pointing through a powerful telescope at the Auckland Observatory. Pretty cool huh? No? Well that was what Leah said too, but I think it rocked. Our inner geekiness shone through in Auckland as we spent the evening at the observatory. For once the museum was not aimed as slow-learning 10 year olds and was pretty informative!! I was busy te...