Me and Jo have split up and gone our separate ways.

Before this happened we explored the far north after our first scheduled dive was cancelled. We went to 90 mile beach and Cape Reinga which is where the Tasman and Pacific sea meet. This was the last day of the good weather before Cyclone Betty struck. We drove back to the Bay of Islands in time for another dive we had booked only for it to be cancelled again due to high winds.

After heading back through Auckland we went to the Coromandel Peninsula and in particular Hot Water Beach. This was the third day of torrential rain but we put our swimmers on and went digging for hot water anyway. We managed to dig a hole and sit in the 63c water before the tide rushed in and cooled our burnt bums down.

Judging by the the smell of rotten eggs we knew we had reached Rotorua. We spent the evening at Hells Gate having a fun mud bath and authentic hot spa. The next day we visited Whakarewarewa Thermal Village - where Maori people live as their ancestors have done for hundreds of years. We saw a cultural performance of singing and dancing which of course included the scary Haka which was very entertaining. Afterwards we had a traditional Hangi lunch cooked in an underground oven followed by a tour of the village, geysers, mud pools, thermal baths and lakes.

The last couple of days we spent in Waitomo which is world famous for the glow-worm caves. The caves we saw on our tour 'Spellbound' were featured on Sir David Attenborough's 'Planet Earth'. Once our eyes adjusted to the darkness, we hopped into a boat and toured an underground river guided by the light of the thousands of glow-worms above. It was really fascinating and actually quite stunning.

Before leaving Waitomo we went to the neighbouring town of Te Kuiti to check out the National Sheep Shearing Competition...what else do you do in New Zealand! Unfortunately they charged admission which we refused to pay. We also had to leave before the running of the sheep (apparently it's not quite as viscious as Borat's running of the Jew).

Today we are in Lake Taupo where we have just been to Haka Falls known as New Zealand's mini Niagra Falls which was really pretty. Oh and its finally stopped raining so we've planned to do New Zealand's most popular one day walk tomorrow...the Tongariro Crossing.

By the way me and Jo are very much still together...Happy April Fools!