When we arrived in Wellington we thought we could walk to our hostel, however when found out that there was only a main road with no pavement. That night it was the last night of the Sevens and everyone was in fancy dress which was cool, we were sad that we didn't have any clothes to dress up in as well. The first place we went to was full of old people and then when we went to another bar in was full of 18 yr olds! The next day we went on the cable car and went around the botanical gardens. There was a sundial in the gardens and when you stand on the date and hold your hands up in the sky it tells us the time; it was only out by 10mins! In the evening we went for a late night chocolate fix with a girl from our dorm called Martha. We had a chocolate cheesecake and a chocolate cake. mmmm. The next day we went to Te Papa which was a really interesting and fun museum. They had this area called the music beats. There was a table with 6 different touch screens, Each one plays a different beat in a song, so we were being Dj's which was fun. there were Mauri carvings and huts which were cool too. They had a collossal squid in the museum, it was huge but had really scary eyes. After the museum we went to parliament and had a guided tour. It was really interesting and we found out that Russel, Christchurch and Auckland have all been the capitial of New Zealand at some point. On the Tuesday Suhanya met a friend from Bath called Lucy. It was great to see her after so long. Then in the afternoon we went to Oriental parade and dipped our feet in the water.

The next day we got the bus to Taupo. After dropping our stuff at the hostel we went to the harbour and went swimming in the Lake. The water was freezing but really clear, it was really refreshing to swim for a bit. That evening we went to a bar called Elements (we actually felt like we were at uni). After a few drinks we danced for a bit when they played good music. The next day we went to the natural thermal spa. The water was really hot when it came straight from the waterfall but further down it mixed with the cold lake water and it was nice. We stayed in for 2hrs and then headed to the Haka falls. They were amazing. The water looked really nice and was a light blue colour. On the way back it started to rain and we got drenched, we felt like we were in England! The following day we went on a cruise around Lake Taupo unfortunately the water was quite choppy and we couldn't go and see the Mauri carvings which was why we went on the cruise. That afternoon we got on the Naked bus to Rotorua.

At the hostel we were staying at we got free wine and tea vouchers so that night we went to the pub and had our free wine. They had a band playing who did cover songs. We had a bit of a boogie and then headed back to the hostel. We tried to open the door with our key but it wouldn't work. We couldn't see anyone in the front so we went round the back and stated to shout to the people in the hostel. We tried throwing some bark at the windows but it didn't work. Luckily someone heard us and came to the door. On the Saturday we went to a mud pool which was really cool. The noise is made was cool (see the video). After we went to the Lady Knox geyser and saw it erupt which was exciting. There were a few retarded people there who were incapable of taking a photo of us with the geyser. We thought maybe the sulphur had affected them. Then we went to Wai-o-Tapu which is a thermal wonderworld. The sulphur smell was really strong but it was a really interesting place to go to. We saw loads of craters which had sulphur deposits on them and there were more moud pools. Our favourite part was the champagne pool it had steam coming from the water and had orange rock around the edge. We then went to the Rotorua museum. We got a guided tour and went around the Bath's which was interesting. They had a Mauri section which was really interesting. After we went on the roof and had a view of the city which was surrounded by mountains. We then took a turn around the gardens and went to the rose garden which was beautiful. They smelt really nice and there were loads of different colour roses. One had fallen on the floor so Suhanya took it and put it in her hair. That night we went on the Mauri indiginous experience in Te Po. A chief was selected from the group and he took part in the welcoming ceremony. We then went to watch the peformances by the Mauri people. The dances and songs were really good and entertaining. We went up on stage with other ladies and were taught how to dance with a poy. Then we saw a haka (challenge), the Mauri people were dancing with sticks and sticking their tongues out which is a sign on strength. Then they asked the men in the audience to go up and learn the dance which was hilarious, especially when they were sticking their tongues out. After the performances we went to see the Hangi in the ground which is traditional Mauri food. Then we went into the dinning room and ate all the yummy food. They had so mcuh yummy food to go with the hangi like shrimps and potato salad. For dessert they had different type of chocolate cakes and mousse. We both felt that we had to try everyone. At the end we were stuffed and then went to see a geyser that was nearby. It was really nice to see the geyser at night, we had hot chocolate too to keep us warm. We then headed back to our hostel. The next day we went zorbing, it is a big ball that has a smaller ball inside. We went in one zorb together and had water inside it. We had to jump in the ball like superman. Then we both stood up and strted walking on the side of the ball to start it rolling down the hill, as soon as we started we both fell. It was so funny and we couldn't stop laughing. Everytime we tried to get up we fell over and kept on rolling around in the ball. By the end we were drenched. We wished we could have gone more times as it was so much fun.

In Auckland we went to Rangitoto Island which is a dormant volcano. We walked up to the summit which was 256m high. The view from the top was great, we had a view of Auckland. We walked around the mouth of the Volcano which had loads of trees growing on top of it. Then we went to the lava cave; it was quite scary walking through as we didn't have much light from our torch.

We are now off to LA and then South America on Sunday.