Hello Everyone,

Happy Halloween!! Well after our extremel relaxing day on Wednesday in Rotorua we headed back on the Magic bus to Taupo. We had a couple of stops on the way to Taupo, we went to a Thermal Park (Mr Forsyth I hope you are impressed with all our Geography research we are carrying out for you!! You better book your ticket to OZ now!!) We got lots of good pictures of the pools of mud, and craters! Lots of beautiful colours, greens, blues, yellows and oranges!! Standing in the park looking out at the green hills almost made us think we were in Scotland!

We also stopped at a Rock and Ropes park where we were the only two brave enough off the bus to do the BIG SWING!! Rachel was well up for it but Gayle was slightly more nervous, it was very high but definately not as high as the Zip Line in Argentina! The instructor put a harness on us and gave us a helmet. We had to climb up the pole, maybe about 40 metres high to the platfrom! Gayle went at the pace of a snail but Rachel was as fast as lightening! Once at the top we were then attached to the swing and asked to hold onto the black Zip and to move our feet to the edge of the platform! By this point Gayle's legs were shaking like jelly, Rachel was very calm! Gayle was the first to go and it took several 1,2,3's before she plucked up the courage to jump off! You felt like you were falling and then the swing part kicked in and you began to swing from side to side! It was fantastic! We hope you like the pictures on the blog of our swing experience!

We then watched two of girls, Kelly and Neesha, do a bungie jump in Taupo over a river! We both felt nervous for them! The surroundings were beautiful! They both said when you are falling you dont feel like you are attacked to anything and then all of a sudden the bounce kicks in! They thought it was amazing! They are very brave indeed! There is absolutely no way Gayle would ever manage a bungie jump but she is probably going to do a skydive in Melbourne with Andy when he comes over in December!! One month today he will be arriving in OZ!! Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Gayle is most excited!

Anyways, when we opened the door to our Hostel room we found a 90 year old woman sitting there with her walking stick! We never expected to be sharing a room with a Granny on our travels! Her name was Audrey and she was there for a YHA convention, she use'st to be a bit of travel back in the day!! That will be us in a few years time! We also got chatting to a girl called Donna from Devon so the three of us went for a walk around part of Lake Taupo. We tried to go to the bar that Mrs Tweedie had suggested, Holy Cow, but unfortunately it was closed so we went to a cafe on the Lake front for a spot of late lunch! We both had pasta and garlic bread, it was delicious!

We had an early night after pampering ourselves with mud masks in preparation for our weekend in Wellington. We arrived in Wellington Friday afternoon and we are staying at Wellywood Hostel which is painted like a zebra so we cant miss it! We are here meeting up with one of Rachels Uni friends, Graeme, he is also a PE teacher! It must be thing to do when you qualify as a teacher! He works in bar called Establishment where Snoop Dog was hanging out at at the weekend! So last night with it being Halloween we dressed up as Fairies (it was the only costume we could find at late notice) and we all went to party at Graemes bar! It was a good night! We have good pictures to put up on the blog.

Today it is blowing a gale outside and raining so we are having a chilled day at the hostel watching DVDs. We also found a shop today called Cool Britannia and it sells cans of Irn Bru!! Amazing!! We have both missed it so...... much! Tomorrow we plan to visit the museum of New Zealand!

We leave the North Island on a ferry on Monday morning and our first stop in the South will be Nelson! We are both enjoying New Zealand but the weather is a bit too much like home at times!

Hope you are well!

Love Gayle and Rachel x x

PS: BIG BIG BIG thank you to Michelle and Claire who managed to get Gayle Take That tickets for June next year!! Wooooooooooooooooooooooooo