Rotten eggs, if you've been to Rotorua then you'll know that that's the smell that greets you when you enter the city. It sounds grim but you get used to it pretty quickly .

As soon as I arrived here I found the world-famous Polynesian spa and had a soak in the lake spas for almost three hours. I'll confess that I fell asleep in the spa while floating and got a little burnt - so much so that when I went to the Te Po cultural experience later that night it was the talk of our dinner table & our Maori host for the evening kept making fun of me .

I enjoyed our evening which included a welcome by a warrior, a song by the women & men as well as Maori music, dancing & games. Some women in the audience got to show off their dancing skills while some men from the audience got to show themselves up by poorly performing a haka - something I'll be seeing lots of tomorrow as I've got tickets to the annual haka championship (te matatini).

The final part of the evening was being driven down to the prince of wales geyser which goes off 20 times a day, sadly it didn't go off while we were there but it was amazing.

Early this morning I journeyed to middle earth (or a sheep farm near matamata) and was amazed by the intricate detail and effort that was put into this set. They're doing more each month to make the experience better for visitors but it was great to walk around the set & hear some of the stories that took place during filming.

I love people enjoying themselves but I had to bite my tongue repeatedly when a group of 20 young Americans got on the bus & a few started playing tin whistles and harmonicas to get us in 'the mood'. I kept having to tell myself don't trip him so he swallows the tin whistle...

I'll be sad to say goodbye to Rotorua, with the spa and lots of ways to injure yourself (zorbs, luge, sky diving etc) I could have stayed longer.

Onward to Taupo & Welington & making more memories!