Kia Ora! We've finally chucked in the hectic travelling schedule and been fairly sedentary over the last couple of weeks, spending 4 days in stinky Rotorua and a luxurious week in the apartment in Taupo. Still we've been trying to make up for it by eating lots of fab food - we're planning a barbeque/hot tub evening tonight, and taking in as many of the more adventurous activities on offer as we can afford/cram into the spells of good weather (or not - see the Tongariro Crossing photos!). We'd been holding off the white water rafting in the states until we found something serious enough to warrant parting with the dosh, and so when we saw the a 7m waterfall, well we couldn't say no. Perhaps we should have done, but wow, a pretty short but amazing trip and they had a photographer along too so you can see how wet we got(that'll teach Josh to volunteer to sit in the front) - if you can zoom in the facial expressions they are pretty funny! We've been exploring the various thermal oddities here too, but the gnarly rafting dude told us about a hot spring that locals know about, which was cool, and surprisingly warm...definitely one of those amazing moments. Here in Taupo the weather is pretty changeable, and we're currently on standby to go out skydiving but the clouds make it luck unlikely today. Maybe we wont get to go here, or out on the lake either, which will be a shame. WIth this in mind, and the fact we'd had to get up at 6am, we decided to go ahead with the Tongariro crossing even when they warned us that there wouldn't be much to see. Its a fairly notorious walk in NZ, with amazing views as you pass over a ridge between the volcanic peaks that overlook lake Taupo, but as you can see from the photos, it was a bit more of an extreme weather experience. Still maybe we'll have to come back and do it again for the views... We're off to the South island in a couple of days so more rain and tramping to look forward to. See yas, Lou x