25/7/9 Waitomo to Taupo On leaving Waitomo we pulled into the Angora Rabbit Shearing Shed which does exactly as the name suggests and is a rabbit shearing shed. The rabbits are attached by their paws to what can only be described as a rack and turned whilst having their amazing thick fur sheared off!! The rabbit looked so helpless with its paws tied out stretched but apparently, according to the rabbit torturing ladies, they aren't bothered. The rabbits are mass...

24/7/9 Waitomo We joined a new bus with a driver called Dallas. the bus was alot more busy than our previous one and a lot younger crowd but all seemed ok. We travelled to Agropark where there was an optional agricultural show which basically consisted of lots of sheep and sheepdogs on the stage. It was pretty funny seeing all the sheep paraded onto the stage lokking thoroughly bored...poor things. The farmer was quite entertaining and he sheared a sheep and mil...

22/7/9 Whitianga to Rotorua We left Whitianga and stopped at the Karangahake Scenic reserve to take a walk through a gorge. We crossed two swing bridges and entered a few abandoned mining tunnels carved into the side of the gorge used for gold mining years ago. It was pitch dark inside and we had a laugh feeling our way through banging into each other. It was a very picturesque walk with lovely views over the river and gorge. We got back on the bus and passed th...

21/7/9 Whitianga (Fitianga) After an early check out we joined the Kiwi bus for our trip to Mercury bay. We met Matt our next driver/guide and he was a real character, full of enthusiasm and a good laugh. There are only 11 passengers so its a pretty quiet bus and everyone is really friendly. We stopped briefly at the kiwi office for people to book onward travel seats which we had already done. We stopped off at Mount Eden (Maungawhau) another of Aucklnads volcan...

17/7/9 Paihia back to Auckland We were booked onto a Te Waka tour of the bay which is a three hour trip but woke to see pouring rain. We had breakfast at the place we were meeting Nick the fella taking us on the trip. He arrived and said the trip was cancelled as noone would enjoy it in the foul weather much to Lizzies relief as she was already pretty cold. We went to the jetty to get our money refunded and then mooched about the shops for a while. Phil had anot...