Hey avid bog readers, hope you aint too snowed under?

It's now 2:50 pm (does NZ work on a 24 hour clock?) and we're chilling on the veranda with a huge teapot of tea, fresh cakes and muffins, and the most gorgeous kiwi bloke ever lying at Nathan's feet :-P. Slightly cloudy but still warm enough to sit and watch the world go by.

This morning was the trip that pushed the budget up, over and 30 million miles away from our original outlined cost. And it was worth every single penny. After a lie in (yey!), the best shower yet (mmm clean!) and a delicious breakfast (yummy!) we were picked up by a very nice lady who was the spitting image of Lara Croft, although she wasn't driving anything special (I'm not sure what Lara drives, but I bet it aint a Vauxhall) and we were pretty confident by the lack of military style boots and climbing ropes we were not going tomb raiding. After a brief introduction to Mercedes, a whooping great Newfoundland with a passion for apple cores (?) another lady gave us the all important safety drills. Sadly, Nathan had no words of wisdom today, other than not sticking your hands up in the air to do a mexican wave when exiting the helicopter.

Following the all important "if we land in the sea, and you're still alive, its normally a good idea to swim..." talk, we met our pilot Carey and got into the helicopter (which I think is a Richardson 22??? It was tiny! And Black!) With the all important ear warmers, microphone, life jacket and seatbelt secured we flew out over Rotorua and to The White Island. No idea why its called that as its not very white, and its technically a very active volcano. It should be named something more appropriate, like "I-explode-violently-every-10-or-so-years-so-you'd-better-not-pee-me-off Volcano" or "My-sulphur-fumes-will-terrify-your-nasal-passages-and-ensure-you-feel-nauseus Volcano" or (Nat's personal favourite) "Stop-bloody-using-me-as-a-tourist-hotspot-I'm-actually-very-shy-and-introverted,-but-I-welcome-you-all-to-swim-in-my-sulphuric/hydrochloric-acidic-lake Volcano"

This place is 50 km out into the Pacific ocean and took approx 40 minutes to fly there. It is reported to be the most active volcano in NZ, although Carey reassured us we'd probably (just probably) make it out on time if he/she (the volcano) had a hissy fit. The landscape was phenomenal - out of this world rock formations, one massive lake, various little pools of boiling mud, hissing streams and the widest array of colours imaginable; everything through from illuminous yellows, bright greens, purples, maroons, blues, greys, white, brown and red. There were also a few rather large vents spurting out masses of gases (one we went nearest to was 640 degrees) and the noise of all the boiling stuff was very intimidating. Considering the amount of gases, and Natalie's delicate nose, the smell for the majority of the crater was not too bad. Maybe it would be fair to mention this is probably due to the gas masks we were advised to wear?

So after about an hour of walking round this really hot, really vivid, really frightening crater we took off again and flew back overland and into a valley, where we saw the most beautiful waterfalls that are normally only seen on foot. We then flew right over the top of a reasonably sized hill (they call it a mountain!) before heading back onto dry, unlikely-to-explode land. In all, this experience was 3 hours, and cost us more than what we could sell a couple of kidneys for on ebay, but we would both do it again in a heartbeat.

Shame all our clothes stank of rotten eggs though! Hahaha

We have no plans at all for this afternoon; there is a lot to do here but we're learning our lessons about squeezing too much in to our days (Ok, we are stll very keen to go out and do "something". Thing is, today, our knees have recovered from our walk in Taupo, but now our bodies are feeling slightly worn out/exhausted, and our feet really would scream if we even mentioned the words "gentle stroll") So far, the plan is to sit, chill, eat cake, get fat, and later sink a bottle (or two) of wine, with a delivered pizza. Then, the roll-top bath is scheduled in, a movie after, then a blissful nights sleep in the comfiest, softest, most luxurious bed ever (yes - its BETTER than our own bed!).

Tomorrow we have something planned, Nathan says its a half day tour somewhere but neither of us can be bothered to get up, walk (toddle) the 5 metres to our room and look at the itinerary. So you'll have to check back tomorrow to see what we've been doing!

Cheerio :-) x x x Loads of love to you all x x x x