Hiya Peps

I am now on last full day of my tour of New Zealand with Connections. I am currently staying at the Bay of Island, which is really pretty and relaxing - although not as many golden beaches as I thought. The weather is so much warmer here than the rest of the country, but still a bit over cast (although started with a sunny day). I have just been on a Dolphin watch tour - and saw a few bottlenose dolphins and teh different islands which up the bay. In addition to a place called the hole in the rock, which was quite cool to see.

Since my last blog in Lake Taupo, I have stayed at Rotorua for 2 nights. When we arrived on Wednesday, we went to a Mouri Village where there is lots of thermal activitiy. We had a traditional hangi, which was cooked via the thermal pools in the area. We also saw a Mouri dance, which was interesting to see. After that I decided to treat myself and went to the Polysian Spa. Thety had mineral thermal pools located next to the lake (which I bathed in for around hour), then had a lovely back massage and cleansing treatment using Roturua mud. This was something I really needed after spending so long on a coach.

I then met Pete for dinner. We had a a fab meal, the steak was lovely. We then headed back to his house (which was cool to see) and had a english cup of tea (great!!).

On Thursday, I was hoping to go to the White Island, which a marine volcanoe which is still active. However due to bad weather I wasnt able to go. Instead I went white water rafting (level 5). The route had 3 waterfalls, 1m, 3m and 7m. When going down the 7m we fliped over, which was scary as I then had to hunt for an air hole. The photos are cool though.

I spent Thursday after noon walking round town. In the motel we stayed at we had a hot tub in our apartments. So the evening was spent in the hot tub with beer.

Yesterday was a day of travel, but we did stop in auckland for 2 hours. In that time we went to the sky tower. This had amazing views of Auckland and we could watch people jump from the top via a skyjump. On arriving to the bay of island a group of us went for an explore and paddle in the sea.

Well that a summary of what I have done since I last updated my blog. I am currently at internet place where you can not upload piccies, but I will have a look round town to see if I can find one where I can.

Tomorrow, I am heading to Auckland, which is where I am based for 4 days before coming home. Pete is meeting up with me from Tuesday. Its feeling a bit strange to think my tour of New Zealand is nearly over and that soon I will be back in the UK.

Lots of love

Helen