It was an early start for Jonny after the Maori night as he got up at 5.30 to watch United in Uncle Boy's kitchen, and was joined by the man himself shortly afterwards! The rest of us were woken up to the sound of Abba Gold (much to Jonny's delight). After breakfast we headed to Rotorua where the order of the day was..... White water rafting!!! It was a grade 5 course with plenty of rapids and a 7m high waterfall (the highest commercially raftable waterfall in the world no less!!) so promised to be pretty hardcore (if you're going to do something do it properly!)

After squeezing into a wetsuit for the second time in as many days we were good to go. It was really exciting riding over the rapids and the 2 smaller waterfalls, but scary when the boat flipped over down the daddy waterfall and both me and Jonny got stuck under the raft (they had warned us this may happen and as soon as they did I knew it definitely would, ha ha). We thankfully managed not to drown and once we were safely back on the raft we watched the other rafts come down (it's way funnier when you're not the one getting thrown out) and carried on the rest of the course.

Now I was on the other side of the boat and was confused when the guide shouted 'hold on' going over another rapid so once again I was flipped out of the raft. After that my paddle was confiscated and I got sent to the front of the boat because the guide said I made her nervous! You got a bogey bro!!

We had decided to hop off the bus at Rotorua and spend a couple of days there just to chill out a bit and catch our breath as our first few Stray days had been pretty manic! What it meant though is that we had to leave our new buddies behind which we were both a bit sad to do, and made us wonder whether we were making the right decision. The other thing that was making us doubt ourselves was the eggy smell around the whole of Rotorua, caused by the geothermal activity in the area which cause sulphur to be emitted all over town!

Anyway after saying bye to them at rafting we arrived at Crash Palace which was our home for the next 2 nights. The hostel was funky and comfy with a nice big lounge and a hot tub!! Just what we needed!

That night was Halloween so we paid (another) visit to the Warehouse to find some fancy dress stuff for the hostel 'party'. We made some token efforts and manage to skav some bin bags and face paints from the hostel. Sadly though we missed out on free punch because Jonny's make-up took too long and the nightlife in Rotorua was somewhat underwhelming. Because it was a Sunday all but one bar was closed!

We spent the next couple of days sleeping a lot (apparently the sulphur in the air makes you sleepy), pottering about Rotorua visiting the mud pools, the worst art exhibition ever and holding our breath every time there was a fresh 'batch' of egg smell!