Hello hello. We are currently in Taupo after spending yesterday night in Wellington, New Zealand's capital. Luckily, our arrival in Wellington coincided with one of the Hurricane's (the wellington local rugby team) super 14's games against a south african team, the 'Cheetahs'. The Hurricanes team consisted of a few All Black players, eg Piri Weepu, Tana Umaga, Rodney So'oialo and Ma'a Nonu (im sure dad will know who they are) so the standard was pretty high and it was a really good game! Jim even enjoyed it, and he hates rugby! The Hurricanes won, which made the atmosphere really good and added to our enjoyment. It was definately a well spent 8 pounds.

We are staying in a hostel on the edge of Lake Taupo. The Lake could fit Singapore inside it easily. It is massive, as im sure you can imagine! We met somebody in thailand who lives here and is hopefully going to show us around tomorrow, which will be good as we need to find ways to fill our four days here.

The weather has got really bad, it is very cold and windy. The rugby last night was absolutely freezing! There is snow expected for the next week which should be good. From Taupo there is a clear view of Mount Doom from Lord of the rings, which apparantly looks much better after heavy snow. We cant see it at the moment due to heavy cloud cover.

I hope you are all ok, ill update again soon. mat x