Kia Ora! I can't believe I've only been in NZ for a week, I've done so much already! I arrived in Auckland on Friday morning and spent the weekend visiting the sky tower, Auckland museum and enjoying the sunshine! Monday morning I joined up with the Kiwi Experience bus and we headed down to Whitianga (Mercury Bay) where we spent some time at Hot Water beach. The sea itself was pretty chilly, but hot water bubbles up through the sand and it is possible to dig your own hot pools - so hot that I almost scalded my feet! Tuesday we continued on to Rotorua where we went zorbing, which was absolutely brilliant fun! For those of you unfamilier with this Kiwi invention, it basically involves getting inside a huge inflatable ball and being pushed down a hill :-) Tuesday evening we went to a traditional Maori Hangi and concert, which was absolutely amazing. It started with a traditional welcoming ceremony and then we went inside for a demonstation of the Poi by the women and the Haka by the men. The evening ended with a delicious banquet cooked in a Hangi - the food is buried underground with hot rocks and left for several hours, fantastic!

The following morning we went down to the geothermal park to check out the geysers and bubbling mud before heading to Waitomo - a tiny village near an extensive cave network where we went black water rafting. This wasn't at all what I was expecting, but brilliant just the same! After abseiling down into the cave network and doing a zipwire (in the dark!) we floated down an underground stream on huge inflatable rings to look at the gloworms, really beautiful. We then waded through the water some more and then climbed up some waterfalls back into daylight.

We arrived in Taupo yesterday afternoon and I went off on a walk up to the Haku falls, before ending up in the hot stream - soooo relaxing! It's like getting into a hot bath, just what you need after a 3hr walk! I'm now in the last internet cafe before we head off on the "East As" trip round the east cape - no phone signal, no ATMs, no Supermarkets for 4 days :-D This part of NZ has only recently been opened up to tourists and is meant to be full of Maori culture and stunning scenery. Unfortunately it means I've changed buses and left behind some of the amazing people I've met over the last few days :-( Hopefully we'll manage to stay in touch (viva la Facebook)!

Apologies for the ongoing lack of photos - it is surprisingly difficult to find an internet cafe with accessible USB ports, but I will keep trying!

Hope you are all well and it's not too cold in England (gloat, gloat!). Lots of love xxx