Sunday we headed towards Rotarua taking the bomb very carefully on the winding wet roads. You can tell the Romans never invaded NZ, not a single straight road in sight. Our first coffee stop in the middle of nowhere was an English teashop/shrine to the English royal family. The landlady was dressed as if playing a role in Downton Abbby and had every kind of royal memorabilia on display including Charles and Diana mugs http://www.corogate.com . At the back of the shop were life size cut outs of William & Kate's balcony wedding scene. She reckons her shop will be included in this year's royal visit as she is their number one fan. We thought we would stop at the Hobbiton village where the films were filmed but ended up driving slowly through the area instead as the driving rain made the children not want to get out the car. As I was the only family member to have read and enjoyed the books it did seem pointless trying to force the issue. Onwards a 100 or so km's and we smelt Rotarua ( located in the Bay of Plenty) before we saw it. The sulphur smell was unbelievably strong but somehow knew we were going to have to literally suck it up. Before we got to our hotel we could see steam from the geysers rising. Our hotel in Whakerwera ( Wh pronounced F) was conveniently located right next door to a Maori village and in the thick of the tourist land. We went straight to Te Puia, a Maori village where we could go on a tour. Everyone was excited to be staying in the crater of a dormant volcano. Not that all that geothermal activity seemed dormant at all. The Pohutu geyser (prounced gizer) blows about twenty times a day and can reach heights of up to 30 metres. We started our tour in the main hall and watched and learned about the local Maori tribe. The dancing and unaccompanied singing was brilliant, some of it a bit scary and some sad. The phrase Kia Ora (welcome) was used by all, we were made to feel very welcome. The boys and men were invited up to learn the Hakka. Normally Oli would have loved being centre stage though on this occasion he seemed quite scared and unsure. Afterwards of course he was full of it saying how much he loved it. We were shown around the geyser area, fortuitously for us the Pohutu geyser was blowing while we were there. You can feel the steam coming up and the rocks are very hot to touch. We got see the boiling mud too which was so weird you can hear it boiling and popping up. Robinson Crusoe and Friday would have loved this place. As part of the tour we were able to see real life Kiwis (the birds) in an enclosure. Being nocturnal animals the resort has switched the birds body clocks round using light; we were taken into a dark area and got to see a couple awake. The New Zealand wildlife programs are successfully breeding these birds on islands around the world to help prevent extinction. Their main predators are the possums and stotes that were brought into NZ from Australia.

After our cultural fix we headed up the skyline cable car and careered down the mountain on a luge. Getting back up the mountain on chair lifts was not as much fun. After about 3 rides it was time to go. I think our children will return to Rotarua one day purely to go back on the luge.

Heading back up the western side of island we made our stop at Waitamo caves which were formed by earthquake activity. In 1887 a local Maori chief and an English surveyor decided to explore the caves and open them to the public. After seeing the stalactites and stalagmites we were taken 30 metres below ground level in boats to explore the home of the glow worms in the caves. These caves are home to thousands of glow worms which are unique to New Zealand. They made the most stunning backdrop to the caves, looking a bit like star light.

Sadly after one more morning where Kay took the children out kayaking it was time to pack up and say goodbye to the beautiful land of the long white cloud. All of us have loved everything here; Zoe especially has become hooked on fejoa & pear juice. The fejoa fruit otherwise known as pineapple guava has quite a distinct taste which only Zoe and I like. I think we'll have to find a New Zealand shop in the UK for her to get her fix every now and then. The vote from all five of us is that we could live here quite easily, but we had to go. We dropped the bomb back, finding the airport sans satnav quite easily and prepared to spend the next 20 hours in transit to Dubai.