Hi Guys,

As you can see I have now made my way up to Auckland which will be my last stop in New Zealand.  Here is a summary of my last week.

So on Monday morning I took the bus north up to Rotorua, which is a nice little town, renowned for its high geothermal/volcanic activity and stinky lake.  Upon arrival as it was still raining, I decided that I would check out the Rotorua Museum of art and history, which by its name alone sounds dull but I actually found this all surprisingly interesting.

After this, I was relieved to see that it had stopped raining; albeit temporarily so I decided to dour a little walking tour of the area, to get my bearings.  Even though I got totally lost in a way that only I could do, I enjoyed my stroll.  Of particular interest here was the KuirauPark, which had loads of steaming/thermal pools, which stank but I found interesting all the same.

The next day, Tuesday, I decided to have another adrenaline-filled day.  I started the day off taking the shuttle bus over to the Skyline Gondolas which once again went up in the mountains for breathtaking views of the surrounding region.  Upon arriving at the top I was pleased to see another luge track, only this one was much better than the one I did in Queensland and I had a lot of fun winding down the hill at super-fast speeds. I followed this up with a stop at the Agrodome Adventures which where I had a choice of two activities from Bungy jumping (as if), the fastest jetboat in NZ, a simulator sky-dive thing or the swoop, which is basically a big swing and similar to the bungy.  I found myself reluctantly agreeing to do the swoop and the jetboat.  So I start with the jetboat which was a lot of fun, whizzing around a 1km man-made track with lots of 360 degree spins along the way.  Then of course it was time for the swoop, luckily there was 2 random Canadians also doing this so we were paired up together, I say luckily as I would have been the one to pull the cord and that would have been a tad embarrassing if I froze up there.  So anyway, we were rushed over to the swoop and were strapped in what can only be described as a sleeping bag and hoisted up 40 metres in the air.  It was bloody high and I was clearly bricking it as I am sure you can imagine, then 3 2 1 the Canadian pulls the cord and we a falling and falling, leaving my stomach behind we swing like a pendulum for about 5 minutes until I was relieved to be let down!  It was great but I had a headache in the end as my blood rushed to my head.  After this I decided to have a nice chilled evening with a couple of beers.

The next day I decided to check out one of the Waiotapu Thermal wonderland, which had lots of fascinating thermal pools with stunning colours including the famous champagne pool and the Lady knox Geyser which erupted, promptly at 10.15am.  I really enjoyed this day as we were able to do a few of the trails in the area and admire all the pretty lakes etc.  Although, it was quite bizarre to be on active volcanic land.  That afternoon I had a lovely 2 hour soak in the spa, which was amazing.

Thursday was a dull day to be honest with nothing of any interest happening, it was the day I caught the bus to Auckland.

Yesterday, I decided to walk into town and ascend the sky tower, apparently the tallest in the southern hemisphere. I don't know, I guess it is because I have climbed similar towers in Malaysia and Sydney, that I just wasn't that impressed. There are only so many times you can see a view of skyscrapers, right? Anyway, after this I did a part of the coast-to-coast walk, stopping off at Mount Eden which is another volcano in the heart of the city.  I actually found this to be far more enjoyable, but maybe this was because it didn't cost me any money.  On my way back to my hostel I stopped in at the cinema to watch 'Pirates of the Caribbean 3'!  Even though it was a tad on the long side it was a good film.

This leaves me onto today, I had a terrible night's sleep last night as I was so cold and I woke up early to see that I had developed what is commonly known as 'man-flu'. So instead of taking the ferry over to Davenport Island I found myself completely sapped of energy and settled instead for a nice stroll around the harbour.

Tonight if I am feeling up to it I probably will go out for dinner and a few drinks, to spoil myself on my last night in New Zealand.  Tomorrow I am flying over to Chile, which I am very much looking forward to.

I hope everyone reading this is well.

Take Care

Jon