Mercury Bay / Rotorua / Waitomo and Taupo

Hi Guys

We left Auckland Saturday morning and on the way out we drove to Mount Eden for some 360 degree views of Auckland. Before arriving at Whitanga/ Mercury Bay we visited Cathedral Cove beach, it's famous for it's archway and it is also the beach used for the first scenes in The Chronicals of Narnia 2. The water was freezing - the coldest sea ever! That evening the hostal cooked us a lovely spagetti bolognese which worked out pretty cheap as it was all you can eat! haha!

On Sunday we started the day with a walk through Karangahake scenic reserve and went through some old mining train tunnels. Next we went to Paeroa where we tried the famous Lemon and Paeroa drink (now owned by Coca Cola) but originally from paeroa. We had a short drive down to Mata Mata, also known as Hobbiton as it is the nearest town to the farm that was used as the shire in the Lord of the Rings. We grabbed a photo with statue of Golumn before leaving. We arrived in Rotorua in the afternoon and it stank! Because it is a geothermal area the place stinks of sulphur (rotton eggs!) We visited te Puia geothermal park where we saw shooting geysters and bubblingmud pools. At the end of the afternoon we went luging which was a right laugh! When we got back we finished the day off with a Maori Culture evening at a Maori Villlage where we watched a culture show and enjoyed an all you can eat Hangi buffet dinner (it's food that is cooked in a hot rocks oven under the ground)

Monday morning we left at 8:30 and we went Hydro-Zorbing (a big blow up hamster ball with water in and they push you down a hill!) it was really stupid but so much fun! In the afternoon when we got back to our hostal we got taken to Waitomo caves where we were fitted with wet suits and abseiling gear and went off on our Black Abyss adventure it was wicked, we abseiled down into the cave where we floated in rubber dingys and saw millions of glow worms on the ceilings of the caves. We also went on a flying fox in the dark (a zip line), climbed up water falls and climbed through small caves holes through freezing water. When we finished they gave us free soup which wsa great as it saved us buying dinner! back at the hostal we cracked open the drinks and played drinking games - very funny night!

Tuesday 23rd December we made our way to Taupo, stopping at Ruakuri reserve where we went for a walk through limestone rock formations, caves, native forest and rivers. We also went to a shearing shed where we saw Angora rabbits being sheared (although Kim waited outside because she didn't like it) Tom just found it hilarious and then found it even more funny because we went in at the same time as some chinese tourists ... "ahhh foto foto!" haha! it was a hot day and in the afternoon Kim went to see Huka Falls whilst Tom went to do his sky dive which was unfortunatly cancelled In the evening Kim and Towny went to see friends to make plans for Christmas eve whilst Tom went to bed as he was ill (again!).

Yesterday, Christmas Eve, Tom and Towny were on standby in the morning for their skydive which was again cancelled, so was the Tongariro crossing that we were all suposed to do. We had a chille dout morning before getting some food, drinks and Christmas hats for the evening when we went around to the other hostal and met some others for drinks. We saw in Xmas day in the element bar, it was okay but nothing like England, no Xmas songs or atmosphere and everywhere kicked out at midnight as it's illegal to serve alcohol on Xmas day in New Zealand so we headed back to our hostal for a bit before an early night

Today - Christmas day WOOHOO! Towny left usand rocked on further south as he had less time than usto finish his trip. We had a late breakfast of xmas eggs on toast and had a chilled Xmas morning. For our Xmas day lunch we had a Bar b q on the terrace and the weather turned out to be glorious so we spent the whole afternoon soaking in the hot tub in the sun with a few cold beers, slightly different to what we're used to! in the evening we had more drinks with some people we met also staying at our hostal but ended up getting told off because we were making too much noise Don't think other nations celebrate Xmas quite like the English! Merry Xmas!!!

Hope your all having a lovely Christmas day and enjoying your roastie!

Merry Christmas!!

Love us x x