We spent Hallowe'en night with the funniest room mates we've had so far - a Dutch guy called Cor and an hilarious American (no, really!) called Nick. So after crying myself to sleep with laughter we got up yesterday and left Taupo for Napier on the East Coast of the North Island. Napier was partially destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 so got almost entirely reconstructed during the Art Deco period, meaning all of the architecture is fantastic. The buildings all ...

After the excitement of yesterday we took it a bit easier today, opting for a walk to Huka Falls in Taupo. True to form, we got lost along the way having to loop back on ourselves and adding about 45 minutes to our journey. I thought we were never going to get there... But when we did it was worth it - the river surges through this narrow chasm and it looked beautiful, especially as we had gorgeous sunshine all day today. And when we got back we relaxed in the ...

Well, as you can see from my photo, I temporarily took leave of my senses at around 3pm yesterday afternoon. I had absolutely no intention of getting involved with anything like skydiving as I'm a) afraid of flying and b) scared of heights. However, about a week ago what started as a random comment ("I might skydive in Taupo") gradually crystallised into a plan and before I knew it I was plunging 12,000 feet out of a tinpot plane. But more on that later...

Kia Ora! It's been a day of solo expeditions today with Jim heading off into Whakarewarewa State Forest Park for some extreme mountain biking whilst I did a bit of sightseeing around Rotorua. Did a bit of shopping first then headed down to Lake Rotorua. It's humungous! Unfortunately, it was a bit grey and drizzly so I couldn't really see a lot with all the mountains in the distance obscured by mist. So I headed off to Ohinemutu, a little lakeside Maori Village a...

Had another very early start this morning, getting up at 6.45am so we were ready to leave on the Magic Bus at 7.45. Yes, I know that's probably not that early for full-time workers but we are meant to be on holiday! And I'm going to try to make the most of that fact for our final month. That's right, a month today we will be back in blighty, ready for the Christmas build up. So we headed south today bound for Waitomo in The King Country. On the way we stopped of...