Yawning and stretching as I clambered down from Jimi onto the cold farmyard earth so bright and early was a delight. The cows and horses were pointedly staring at us and lambs could be heard a short distance away. We had to collect a parcel from Auckland later in the day, as it had failed to be delivered three consecutive times. With a little more haste injected into our day we scoffed down some beans on toast and were on our way. Arriving at Waitomo caves the ...

Gently tensing my bum cheeks and calves whilst still under the covers was both intriguing and painful, running the last part of the Tongariro hike yesterday has turned out to be a terrible idea. I think I will be spending the rest of the day on crutches. Massaging my legs back to normality we headed to our river rafting headquarters - it was 08:45 and I was jubilant. When we arrived they were refurbishing the building so tents and gazebos had been set up outsid...

Arriving at our campsite late last night presented us with our host, the most pessimistic German woman I have ever met. After explaining to her that we had booked and paid for a shuttle bus to and from the crossing's start and finishing points she went on to barrage us with rules. We HAD to wear trousers and take 1.5 litres of water each. We HAD to take a water proof jacket and suitable trainers. Mostly common sense stuff but I was wearing shorts regardless of wh...

Skydiving and screaming were on the agenda so we hopped to making breakfast and left our huge campsite sharpish. Chelsea had tentatively booked herself in for a skydive with Taupo Tandem Skydives and was slowly but surely getting more nervous as the minutes slid by. Sitting in the skydive facility, in a neat row on some leather benches, we watched a brief video regarding safety and then of course the different photography packages you can buy to go along with y...

With the luxury of unlimited wifi in our campsite we carefully picked what activities were top of our list in the vastness of opportunities that Taupo presented. Taupo has won the number one spot as 'top tourist town' three years on the bounce as well as holding the trophy for the biggest lake in the Australasia continent. In truth, the mammoth lake is actually the product of an immense caldera (collapsed volcanic crater) and is the same size as Singapore! We s...