This morning we headed straight to 'Te Puia' - the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute and Whakarewarewa Geothermal Valley. Having paid rather a lot for the entrance fee, we opted for the guided tour for once to make sure we made the most of what the centre has to offer.

The whole place is run by Maoria and the guy who led our tour is the Great Grandsom of the founder of the Institute. He gave us some really interesting insight into Maori culture and we saw some students doing intricate wood and jade carvings.

We then headed outside to the most exciting parts - including the Pohutu Geyser which erupts regularly throughout the day and shoots steaming water up to 30 metres high! We got pretty wet standing on the bridge looking at it and again were met with that lovely sulphur smell...

There were also giant boiling mud pools - pretty disgusting looking but apparently the mud works wonders for the skin, arthritis, joint pain etc! We were amazed to see a hotel built right next to these - firstly because with all that volcanic activity it will probably end up in the mud pool one day, but also I wonder if they advertise the eggy sulphur smell as part of the package??

I was surprised to discover that despite all this geothermal activity, only 15% of NZ's energy production is geothermal. It seems they want to preserve these thermal areas by not using too much of the water.

We rounded off the tour of Te Puia with a wee look into the Kiwi House. I'm not surprised that they are an endangered species as all in all they seem like pretty useless birds! They look like a cross between a chicken and a hedgehog...

We're now in Taupo staying at another Top 10 campsite, having stopped at the impressive Huka Falls on the way. The weather is beautiful! Lake Taupo is the biggest lake in Australasia, roughly the size of Singapore. Its used mostly for fishing and watersports and we got some great views of it with the volcanoes of Tongariro National Park in the background, some still snowcapped.

So we're now pretty excited for tomorrow's adventure - the Tongariro Crossing! More about that tomorrow - for now, we're having an early night as the alarm is set for 5.45am. Fingers crossed for good weather and no volcanic eruptions...!