Monday 04th June 2007

Journal brought to you by Sophie who actually did some exercise today - shock horror!

Well as we have visited Taupo before we haven't actually done anything very exciting at all. We got up...late as usual after having a marathon reading session. I am reading another Jeffrey Archer and I am actually really excited because I have bought two Beverley Harper books who is the female equivilent of Wilbur Smith and you can only get hold of her stuff in Australia and New Zealand. They were in second hand bookshops so I snapped them up. However this does mean by bag is hardly closing so I think I may have to get rid of some clothes...

We had brekkie and then went to Pak 'N' Save to stock up on food. I am very excited because tonight I am going to make brown rice with vegetables in a satay sauce. We have actually eaten quite well since coming away apart from all the TimTams that keep being on offer in Woolworths (the NZ version) and forcing me to buy them. Rich and Chris you may be happy to know I have broken out of the mould and tried some new flavours. One was the chocolate mud love potion TimTams. For those who do not know what a TimTam is I have googled it and this is what it said;

Tim Tams are a chocolatebiscuit made by Arnott's Biscuits, Australia. A Tim Tam is composed of two layers of chocolate malted biscuit, separated by a light chocolate cream filling, and coated in a thin layer of textured chocolate. According to Arnott's, around 30 million packs are sold each year - nearly 300 million biscuits, an average of approximately 1.5 packs per Australian.[1] Tim Tams were first put onto the market in 1964.[1] They were named by Ross Arnott, who attended the 1958 Kentucky Derby and decided that the name of the winning horse Tim Tam was perfect for a planned new line of biscuits.[2]You may be fooled into thinking that a Tim Tam is like a Penguin but you would be seriously mistaken. If anyone ever refers to a Tim Tam as a Penguin I will get very upset. On the upside apparently the big Tescos are apparently selling three varieties although not my favourite, which is Classic Dark. This has made me extremely excited as it means I can still carry on living the Australia experience.Oooops I went off on a bit of a tangent there, I do apologise but I really do love those biscuits. Anyway after we had been to Pak 'N' Save we went back to the hostel and Roy, our good friend who used to work there turned up, which was brilliant as we thought that he had left and we wouldn't get to see hime. We then spent two hours chatting to him and some of the other peopel who work at the hostel. It was actually a very indepth chat including a debate on the Maori people, racism and all other kinds of things. It was very enjoyable. Tami and I then felt very energetic and went for a run along the lake. After this Roy took us for a spin in his very cool sports car so firstly we could take some pictures of the sun setting over the lake and then he drove us along the route we are planning on walking tomorrow so we knew where we were going. It is only 20km :OWe ate dinner and went to bed. A truly fulfilling day!