The day started with Dave faring us goodbye as he was heading off east, still somewhat stunned I imagine from what he had seen only a few hours earlier. The rest of us got on the bus, with only me and Gilly heading to smelly Rotorua, the rest of the crew going on to Auckland.

I Rotorua I convinced Gilly to join me at the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, which could only be better than the Craters of the Moon. We had to get a shuttle bus there and the driver was a salt of the earth Kiwi woman who was unintentionally hilarious. The park was fascinating, particularly at the far end where it just looked like Jurassic Park. However, the prevailing wind blowing across the Champagne Pool and the sulphur fumes from it made two of the most unpleasant minutes of my life. Then despite feeling ropey from the night before I stupidly decided to buy a spearmint milkshake, which after around 5 sips I had to throw away…what a prat.

Back in town I scratched an itch by going Zorbing of the Zydro kind (the ball being half filled with water, it was like being in a human washing machine!). Despite bad reports I found it really fun, swearing and screaming all the way down. Glad I ticked it off the list, I would definitely do it again.

For dinner me and Gilly decided to go on wander to see what was available and ended up in…Pizza Hut having a buffet. And we had the chance to go to a Maori cultural show, oh well. Had a long and fun chat with Gilly over dinner which was fairly vulgar unsurprisingly and taught her some new things! lol. Everyday is a school day so they say.