Had a good relaxing day today. Had to go shopping this morning to buy a new mains adapter for my ipod. I bought one in the US but I've since realised that they work on half the voltage as here and I think it will actually blow up if I plug it in so it's not worth the risk! I can't find a voltage adapter anywhere. I've now got a worldwide adapter that automatically knows what voltage to use. Should have bought one like that in the first place! I think went to Woolworths which over here is a supermarket! Very odd. I bought some lamb to have for dinner tomorrow. Today I have left over lamb korma from yesterday. Thought I'd better eat some of the local sheep population! They have enough here. Apparently over 40000!

I then got some lunch and ate it by the lake. Next I walked up to Kuirau Park to see the thermal activity. There are pools that have steam coming off them and they are like a bluey colour with yellow on the outside. The picture attached to this blog is Wai O Tapu which is where I'm going tomorrow. It doesn't quite look like that in the park in Rotorua! There are also boiling mud pools which are so cool! They are just holes in the ground of different sizes and the mud at the bottom is bubbling! Awesome. While I was at the park I saw the Aquatic Centre and decided to go swimming. I had my bikini with me cos I was planning on going to the Polynesian Spa. I was just going to see about opening times and prices but since I was there and it's not that near to my hostel I thought I may as well go in now. I bought a fun pass that included all the pools and the spas too. It was $7 so much cheaper than in the UK. I went in the outdoor pool first and it was lovely and warm. Then it got a bit busy with kids and it turned out they were having a waterpolo tournament there! So I went in the spa for a bit and then a swam a few laps inside and again went in the spa. I was there about 1.5 hours I suppose. Have decided I need to go swimming more regularly as I couldn't do many lengths but judging by how much my chest hurt its quite a good cardio workout! Its easier in warm climate too as you dry quicker.

Yesterday while I was waiting for my dinner to be ready from the takeaway I picked up some estate agents brochures. I still can't get out of the habit of looking in the window of every estate agents thanks to two holidays on the trot in France of doing just that! Well it turns out you can get so much more here for your money and it's not just the exchange rate. In Auckland it was expensive but it was a major city. Here its a small city and about 2 hours from the coast so you can actually buy a 2 bedroomed house with a garden for less than 100k pounds! So have pretty much decided now that I'm going to go back to Uni when I get home to study Diagnostic Radiography and emigrate! Have tried to look in to how much they get paid out here but I can't work it out as Radiographers or medical imaging technicians get paid $30k-60k and they need a degree but Diagnostic Radiologists get paid $120k-$170k but it seems they need a medical degree plus more specialist training. Seems like a big jump! Would definately need to speak to someone about it! I looked at a mortgage calculator and on $30k I could only borrow just over $100k which isn't enough at all but on $120k I could borrow over $600k! I only need about $200k to buy a decent property not too far from the centre of town. They don't have apartments here which is a shame as they would be much cheaper!

Well I think I've rabbitted on enough now about stuff people reading this probably aren't that interested in!

It's still hot and sunny here. Just thought I'd rub that in a bit to the people who are in the UK right now! So tomorrow I'm going to Wai O Tapu thermal park in the morning and then I'll definately go to the Polynesian Spa, I have my ticket but I would like to go when my "togs" as they say out here are dry!

Love you all muchly xxx