Kia Ora from Rotorua. We (Jim and I) have been here for three days now and have just about got used to the smell. The sulphur lakes surrounding the area make everything and everywhere smell of strong egg.

We spent our first few days walking around and taking in the sights, mainly the boiling mud pools as you can see. Today we decided that we should try to quench our new found thirst for adrenaline and go caving. We had an amazing time. I was originally going to go by myself, but Jim's mum sent him over some money just in time for him to be able to get involved. We started the day with a 120ft abseil through a tight hole that eventually opened up to become a massive cave. From there we did a short walk before being told to turn our lights off. We were then attached to a zip wire by our harnesses and thrown over the edge of a huge drop. As we had turned our lights off, this was obviously done in complete darkness, which made it much more fun. After a few tight squeezes, we then sat on the edge of a river, with the water being about 10 feet below us. We had lunch, were given rubber rings and jumped off the edge into the ice cold water, also completely in the dark. From there we floated along the river, looking up at the glow worms (or glow maggots as they actually are), which looked just like stars. We even made out some constellations! After about an hour and a half in the ridiculously cold (eel infested) water we got out, which I was more than happy to do! From there we had to crawl through a network of very tight tunnels which i was convinced i wouldnt get through, being tall and very very unflexible! By this point, i felt like i was starring in the film, 'the descent' and couldnt logically see myself getting out of the cave! When we had all squeezed through the tiny holes, we were faced with two water falls to climb before being back on the surface. I am really surprised that everyone managed to do it injury free as the waterfall walls were very slippery. We were caving for about 5 hours and enjoyed every minute of it!

We are here for another day and head to auckland early sunday morning so i will update again from there.

See you all soon (3weeks!) Mat x