Now when people who have been to Rotorua warn you of the smell there, you ind of just think that they are exaggerating, and it wont be so bad ..... BIG mistake. This place really does stink!!! I best explain for those of you who do not know anything about this little NZ town. It is pretty much NZ's centre of geothermal activity, its full of bubblig mud pools, geysers, boiling hot lakes, steaming streams etc etc all of which is heavily centred on the abundance of sulphur (from all of the volcanoes indergorund) which as you may know, smells like rotten eggs. No joke, that probably is the only way you can describe it. Now this town smells like this all of the time ... things are also not helped by the fact that our hostel is rather inconveniently located right next to some sort of gaseous release pole emanating from the ground at the side of the garden. This pole spews out steam constantly and even spits disgusting sulphurous water all over the place at random intervals (obviously how the owners managed to buy 2 house on the same street!!!) which Sarah was unfortunate enough to encounter, directly, shall we say!! We didnt actually get up to much, as all of the thermal parks were in the business of ripping tourists off to justy watch some bubbling pools at an extortionate rate, so we just milled about waiting for the Sunday night to arrive, where we embarked on a journey into the Maori culture and history at a traditional Maori concert and hangi (meal cooked in a traditional underground oven). We did meet a really nice couple though in the hostel from oxford or somewhere, the guy was even a farmer and i shared a few wise words with him from my extensive experience in the agricultural and horticultural worlds!!! Anyway, the Maori night was wicked. It was set on the Matai families original settlement in an area of dense native bush, with a natural spring and stream as the centrepiece. After being given a quick run down on protocol etc, a chief was elected to represent our group (some old guy from England) as he would have to make contact with the Maori chief and his warriors (exchanging a few quickly learned word in Maori and accepting a gift of peace to prove that his [and the people who he represented i.e. us] were indeed peaceful. we proceeded to the stream where we witnessed a traditional canoe being rowed up towards us as the warriors aboard it were chanting ancient incantations in Maori - all pretty cool in all fairness. Next we watched our chief face up to a screaming weapon yielding Maori man until he accepted the peace offering and initiate contact with the chief. Music, dancing, weapon shows etc followed with the chief telling us the various sections of history attributable to each instrument, weapon etc. this lasted probably about an hour until the grand finale of the haka. Again this was really good, and we even had to stand up and try to copy some easy versions with them. The best part was yet to come - the hangi!! We were starving by this time and the food was awesome!!! loads of fresh 'falll off the bone' lamb, kumara, chicken!!! we were so full by the end of it that we were both ready to explode - especialy with this major overload of meat - something the poor traveller rarely samples (unless it is eaten between two pieces of round bread and tastes like cows arse). The next morning we headed off to Raglan - NZ's best surfing destination, famous for its left hand break - reputed to be the best in the world! In true Sarah and Pete style it was completely flat!!! We did however have a nice couple of days here, just sunning ourselves and generally bumming around before getting in touch with James a family member living out in Auckland, which we left for yesterday.