Ok, so we have just ditched Kate Fish as she has abandoned us to return England wards - with a slight detour and we headed up to the northern tip of the North Island of New Zealand (try saying that 5 times when your drunk!) to the Bay of Islands. The bus ride up here was....hairy - VEEEEEEEEEEEEERY bendy roads made Jo and I feel veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery seasick and we were glad when the 5 hour trip was over! (Second to last bus ride though - whoohoo!!) We event...

We arrived in Rotorua and (thanks to Mistress Love's wonderous advice) we were prepared for a rotten egg smell that is apparently the perfect accompaniment to thermal activity which the area is famous for. We got dropped off at some mud pools and my lord did they pong!! Luckily, when we actually got into the town of Rotorua the smell wasnt constant and it was actually ok! Anywho, Rotorua is one of the first places that we have been to recently that properly...

Right!! After losing all of our fishy family at random places along the way, we all agreed to meet up for Kate's last night in New Zealand *sobsob*. ANywho, this basically means that we were DEAD excited to get there! Whoopwhoop! We have heard baaaaaaaaaaaad things about Auckland which made us slightly worried, Wellington was supposed to be much nicer than Auckland but we hated it! So yes....we had the fear. Anywho, we arrived in Auckland and actually reall...

Arrived in Lake Taupo this morning after a very pretty trip on the coach (what a big surprise!!) and .... there is a big lake there....and thats about that!! We spent a few days just sitting in our jail cell room - there was no window and was boiling hot but we rarely left it!! Infact, one of the maintenance men kept laughing at us for not going outside, he kept telling us about this pretty thing called a lake that lives in the outside world, but we didnt listen ...

Rafting again rafting again!!! Ok so we might be slightly addicted....! We got dropped off at a random little town called....urm....Taihape - but which I am convinced is called Happy Clappy....but anyway! We got collected by the lodge people and taken to River Valley which is "nestled" (seems like a good word for it!) at the bottom of a flat top mountain right next to the river. It was such a cute little place, nothing around for miles and miles except...