Hi!

Sorry it's been so long since I last wrote a blog. Internet here is so expensive.

So, when in Rotarua we went to a Maori experience. I can't remember if I talked about it in the last blog or not. It was a brilliant evening. We got to eat traditional Hangi, food cooked underground using hot rocks, and saw a performance of traditional dancing (including that tribes' Haka), music and poi. We also went on a walk through the wood to see glow worms! The next day we went to a geothermal park called Te Puia. There is a geyser there which can get up to 27m. It's pretty impressive, There were also thermal mud pools which were pretty cool. The park also had a Maori village, as they used to live, and lots of exhibits on the history of the Maori. You could also visit the weaving and wood carving schools and see the students working. The pieces they were working on were pretty amazing, really intricate. The same park had a pair of Kiwi birds. They are so strange! Like a round ball of fluff/feathers on really long legs and with a rediculously long beak. They run really fast too and the pair they had don't like each other so they kept bickering. After that we visited a local redwood forrest and went for a nice walk through the wood.

After that we drove to Taupo. We went for a walk around the massive lake there and then walked along the river up to Huka Falls. They were odd waterfalls, more like steep rapids rather than a waterfall. But very impressive. After that we visited a glassblowing place and a honey centre and got free samples!

Next we travelled down to Wellington and stayed there for a couple of days. Wellington is ok but nowhere near as nice as Auckland. Plus the weather was very rainy so sights such as the botanical gardens weren't as attractive as they might have been! We then got the farry from Wellington to the South Island (we're having to move pretty quickly as we don't have much time to see everything we want to in New Zealand!)

We first viseted Abel Tasman. This is a stunning section of the coastline here. A massive area of it is a National Park. It has beautiful beaches and really diverse woodland inland. The first day there we wanted to go kayaking but couldn't so we played mini golf instead! The next day we got a water taxi up the coastline so we could walk back through the national park. We thought we were doing an 11km hike but it turned out we were misinformed and it was actually 22km! It took about 6 hours but we got back just before dark so it was ok in the end. My feet ached though!

Next we travelled down to the Nelson Lakes. These are two massive lakes in the northern centre of the South Island. They absolutely huge and surrounded by snow capped mountains so were pretty beautiful. On the same drive we visited the Pancake rocks. No one knows for sure how they formed, they're a geological mystery! They're quite odd looking too!

The next day we went glacier walking on the Franz Josef Glacier. I loved it! We got all kitted out in waterproofs and special shoes and spikes and then got led up onto the glacier itself. We spent about 4 hours on the glacier itself. It's absolutely beautiful. We got to walk through the crevasses and through ice caves. We also got to be the first group through a tunnel only just wide enough to wiggle through when lying down. We got soaked but the waterproofs held up!

The next day we visited Fox Glacier. It's more rugged than Franz Josef. Then we drove on through Haast pass through the mountains. That night we stayed in a campsite in the middle of the mountains. The views when it was light and the stars after sunset were beautiful.

Then it was on to Queenstown. Two days ago we went skydiving. I can't believe I actually did it! It was so so much fun though and the views from up there were just breathtaking. Not that I could breathe anyway during freefall!

Yesterday we went snowboarding. We had two 1.5 hour lessons and by the end I was still falling over a lot. We managed to do turns by the end of it though so we were proud of ourselves!

Today is our last day in Queenstown. We're hopefully moving on to Millford Sound which is supposed to be one of the top places to visit in New Zealand.

xxx