Raglan is a nice little surf town full of shops selling expensive bits and bobs. When we arrived we had a wander around the town, window shopping and looking for somewhere nice to have a couple of drinks for Charlie's birthday. We ended up in a little pub just having a couple of pints and a few games of pool. There were surprisingly few people about, apart from three other guys, we were the only other people there and didn't pass anyone on our walks to and from o...

Our day in Mount Maunganui was mostly spent climbing the mountain. I say mountain but really, it looks like a big hill, however after climbing up there it's definitely more mountainous than hilly. We had a nice leisurely stroll around the base of the mountain before going up to the summit. Now, we keep doing all these walks but they're not getting any easier; we're not especially unfit but it's proving difficult to improve on it. We were continuously overtaken by...

We left Taupo in the morning and had a quick stop at the Huka Falls. These were just rapids and wouldn't really be of note apart from the fact that a gaggle was there too. They had just got off of the coach in full winter wear (shiny puffer jackets) and proceeded to take hundreds of pictures of the same thing. We watched them for a while and then started to imitate some of their poses, when the leader of the gaggle saw what we doing and informed his group. Luckil...

We left Taupo in the morning and had a quick stop at the Huka Falls. These were just rapids and wouldn't really be of note apart from the fact that a gaggle was there too. They had just got off of the coach in full winter wear (shiny puffer jackets) and proceeded to take hundreds of pictures of the same thing. We watched them for a while and then started to imitate some of their poses, when the leader of the gaggle saw what we doing and informed his group. Luckil...

We arrived in Taupo in late afternoon and got to the iSite (information centre) just in time to book a skydive for the next day. In the morning, we headed to the iSite and got told that it was too cloudy and to return in an hour. At 12.30 we went back and got told the same thing, it wasn't looking good. But, as the saying goes, it was third time lucky and at 2 o' clock we were sitting in a limo, on our way to the airport. We got ushered through a door painted a...