Hi!

A little update on our New Zealand experience so far (although you will have seen some pics!).

We spent a few days in Auckland where the main activity was catching up on sleep from all our plane journeys! We got a little tour of the surrounding area from a friend of Rachel's Grandma, so that was really interesting and we had a lovely afternoon with her and her family.

We also managed to squeeze in a bus trip up to the Bay of Islands for one night. We stayed in the lovely little town of Paihia and luckily had quite nice weather while we were there (the weather here is similar to summer in Scotland, although its Spring here at the moment). While we were there we took a ferry trip across to a village called Russell to see new Zealand's oldest church and police station. When we got back to Paihia we walked to Waitangi Treaty Grounds, where the agreement that New Zealand would be handed over to Great Britain from the Maori natives was signed. There was a really interesting visitors centre there.

The next day we returned to Auckland on the bus. We decided to take advantage of the sunny weather and went up the Sky Tower to see some great views across Auckland. It was really high up, and as you can see from the pics it was a bit scary looking down through the glass floors to everything below!

On Monday, we were blessed with great weather again so we walked to a really nice cafe and had an AMAZING breakfast. Next we walked to the Auckland Museum, which was really interesting. On the first floor we learnt lots about New Zealand's past and about Maori culture. There were lots of pretty carvings, boats, clothing and jewellery from all around the South Pacific. The second floor exhibits were all about the Natural World. There were dinosaur bones and creepy bugs to look at! We also learnt lots about Volcanoes, so hopefully Mr Forsyth will be proud of us for spending lots of time at this part of the museum! New Zealand has lots of volcanic activity, in fact Auckland has a volcano right next to it...hope it doesn't erupt while we are there! The third floor of the museum would be Mr Baird's favourite...it was all about the War. We spent a good while there, and it was interesting to learn about the Wars that took place in New Zealand's past as well as World War 1 and 2 from New Zealand's perspective.

That night, after taking part in our favourite activity (Shopping!) we met up with Rachels' mum's cousin for a while (she is a nurse in Auckland).

Yesterday we set off on the bus so that we can see the rest of the North Island. The scenery is very much like Scotland so far! We got to our current location, Rotorua at about 5pm. We headed straight out on a trip to visit a Maori village. We had such a great evening! We learned so much about the Maori people (natives of New Zealand and the South Pacific) and how they lived a long time ago. They sang and danced for us, which was very entertaining. One of the best bits was when they showed us how they trained and then picked the warriors who were good enough to fight in the war...they used Agility Ladders, just like the ones Mr Laing makes his Int 2 and Higher class use all the time! He really knows his stuff! I hope the Int2/Higher class are sticking in, one of the warriors had very impressive muscles! One of our favourite bits was seeing the Haka being performed. The Haka is what you see the All Blacks perform right before a rugby game, and it was amazing to see up close! After all of this we got provided with a lovely Hangi meal (a traditional meal cooked underneath the ground). There was lots to eat - chicken, beef, fish, mussels, lots of veg followed by chocolate pudding!

Today has been a nice relaxing day...Rotorua is situated on the edge of Lake Rotorua, which has steam coming off it due to the volcanic activity underneath, really cool to see! Because of the sulphur in the water, the town smells like egg sandwiches but we are quite used to it by now!

We walked around the lake, and took a picture for Mr Forsyth (we hope this persuades him to come to visit us in Australia!). Then we visited the Polynesian Spa for some well-deserved pampering. OK, we couldn't afford the beauty treatments but we did spend ages in the hot springs! They are right on the edge of the lake and so, so hot - it was lovely!

Hope you are all well...and we will be keeping our fingers crossed that you get a snow day or two!! It's only fair when we have the whole year off!

Rach and Gayle xxx