We smelt Roturua before we saw it. Another smallish town set on the shores of Lake Rotorua in a a highly active geothermal area. Commonly known as Rotovegas, we have no idea why! Not a casino in sight as we drove through town to our campsite. A wicked place to set up camp with a bubbling mud pool a stones throw from our tent, natural mineral pools on site and a hangi steam oven.

Keen not to waste the day we headed to Mount Ngongotaha and climbed on the Gondola to whisk us up to the Luge. Tobogons with wheels with a choice of tracks to race down. Hilarious fun! We mastered a couple of runs before heading off to the Agrodrome for a spot of swooping and zorbing.

The swoop is crazy. Strapped into a sleeping bag you get winched up hundreds of metres, well thats what it felt like, before pulling the rip cord and plummeting to earth at 130kmp! Emma refused to be on rip cord duty, happy to just cling onto Jonas arm for dear life. Finally at the top with Emma shouting 'Dont look down whatever you do!', Jona shut his eyes and pulled the cord. Jesus Lord Christ, we left our stomachs behind as we fell to the ground only to find them again as we swung pendulum like back the other way. Scary but a really good buzz. We went to check out the Zorbing but the track length didn't look up to much, especially after the adrenalin rush of the swoop, and so we gave it a miss. After an action packed afternoon we soundly fell asleep to the sound of glooping mud back at the campsite.

Off to the supermarket first thing to pick up a leg of lamb corn on the cob for the Hangi. Our mouths were already watering as we studded the joint with garlic and rosemary, sealed it in a watertight pot and dropped it in the Hangi. An ingenious Maori oven that uses the heat and steam from the natural thermal vents to cook your food. We would have to wait nine hours for it to cook, so we busied ourselves with some serious mountain biking.

On Mr Napthines recommendation we headed for Whakarewarewa Forest. A mountain devoted to all terrain and downhill biking, awesome! Fun, fun, fun as we sped through the firs and pines hitting banked turns, table tops, jumps and gullies. Jona hit some more technical stuff with harsh switchback uphills and massive stepped, skanky tree rooted downhills. Emma was glad she skipped those!

Next stop Te Puia, the glooping pools of mud, sulphurous springs and geysers, but at 50 bucks a hit to get in we weren't so sure, would it be a jot on Bolivia?! Popping into the gift shop to check out the picture postcards to see if it was worth it, we accidently found ourselves wandering out of the wrong exit into the park. No-one seemed bothered so we went to have a quick look. We were right, Boliva was better. Cool geyser though, just thankful we hadn't spent $100 to see it!

HANGI TIME. Not sure how the lamb was cooking we dropped in the corn on the cob and hoped for the best. Forty minutes later, oh my God, marshmallow meat and the sweetest corn ever. Yum, yum, yum!