Arrived in Rotorua in the evening, and checked into the BASE hostel...we are staying in Bases all in the North as they have a pretty good reputation. We were both pretty tired so just grabbed some food and went to bed. BUt we were in a 6 person dorm and all the other people in our room knew each other from the Kiwi Experience bus and so were playign drinking games. They went out about 11:00 so it wasnt so bad, but 3 French canadian girls stayed behind and god knows what they were talking about but they were screeching at each other from one side of the room to the other, and turning all the lights on. We somehow managed to get to sleep only to be woken up a few hours later by everyone coming back trampling through the room onto the balcony then screaming at everyone on another balcony saying "is anyone asleep in your room, because they is in ours so we have to be quiet!!"

The next morning we were up at 8:00am to go to Wai To Po Geotheraml pools, which is basically a group of craters and volcanoes. It absolutely stank of rotten eggs but there was some good lakes etc and we had a nice walk, which warmed us up as it was freezing outside. That afternoon we went to the Polynesian Spa and spent the afternoon in hot alkaline and acid pools (alkaline is good for your skin and acid is good for aches and pains!) It was really nice and relaxing and hopefully undid some of the knots from carrying our backpacks around (which are getting heavier by the day!) It was starnge as the pools were between 38 and 42 degrees but all outside so you heated up and cooled down quite fast. They also overlooked Lake Rotorua which was nice. If only they served wine in the pools it would have been perfect!

Afterwards we went to a little cafe sat in front of a log fire and drank red wine and ate foccacia bread and humous and pesto which was gorgeous and a lovely ending to the day!

Then we went for a couple of drinks at the hostel bar before heading to bed. We travel to Wellington tomorrow morning which takes about 8 hours.

The trip to Wellington was very boring. I think because im not enjoying my book (John Grisham) and the coach's tv didnt work. The scenery was absolutely stunning though. Got some pictures of Hooker falls and also the volcanoes where they filmed all the fight scenes for Lord of the Rings. The coach didnt stop though so they will have to be cropped to take out the bus window!