Hello there

Well we are in stinky ( very stinky) Rotorua, the whole town stinks of egg due to all the sulphur from the geothermal pools etc, makes you feel a bit sick!

Monday 12th March

We arrived at Taupo after our horse ride and played mini golf which i almost got a hole in 1 but Iain did get 1 and it took me a record 12 shots for the easiest hole! We pitched up our tent at the Thermal holiday park, which decoded to break on us, the main pole snapped in 1/2! We had bought a spare set in Oz but it took us ages to fix it all back together and we wasted a nice day doing that!

Tuesday 11th March

Well, the scariest day so far.......we got up and went for a quick run by Lake Taupo and then there we were arriving at Taupo airport for our skydive. We watched a video with 1 other girl who was also doing it on what we are about to do and had a quick brief and then it was sign your life away and go those red jumpsuits on! Along with a mini lifejacket bum bag incase we landed in the lake and suddenly an oxygen mask was clipped on too! Apparently we needed oxygen for the plane up as when you go that high the air gets thinner and it sends some people to sleep!! Not good if you're skydiving but we took it off before we jumped. Before you knew it, we were in a tiny plane - no suits, you just sit between your instructors legs and watch the world as you climb higher and higher! Then the oxygen got turned on into our mask and we were clippped onto our skydive master (as they call them!)

Iain was 1st and chimmied to edge of theplane 9 it just had a pull door like a see through garage door) while the istructor held onto the roof and the camera man clung onto the oustide of the plane and then like a banana ( we had been told to put our feet right under the plane, hips out and head back - like a banana!), 1, 2 and the instructor push them out and he freefalled for 65 secs at a rate of 200km/hr!! He loved every minute and did all the actions that we were told we could do - right little actor up there in the clouds, swimming, superman, little fish, big box, you name it he did it!!! Then it was me - white a s sheet and very scared, i chimmied up with Jorn and out we went but did 2 full sumasalts before we balanced up - had my eyes closed the whole time! My freefall was pretty much eyes closed, the camera was pulling my nose and tapping my head so that i did funny things but i was frozen & kept closing my eyes! I wish i had opened them a bit more but i did see the lovely scenary on my fall to earth, 15,000ft to 3,000ft in 65 seconds, not bad!!

The parachute opened for me & at 3,000ft it was still pretty damn high! As you get closer to earth, cars looked like dots but the views over Lake Taupo & the mountains was amazing but i started to get a bit travel sick as we parachuted about and it was scary as we came to land, put it was a great landing where we just walked in - fantastic experience! next time you're on a plane and the pilot says, "we are now cruising at an altitude of 15,000ft", you can look out your window and imagine us jumping and freefalling to earth...............

After the skydive, we walked from the Huka Falls ( biggest hydro electrical power in NZ, provinding lots & lots of electricity to everyone) to a fresh hot water stream that was mega hot to have lunch and then went to watch the Dam gates open and 100s of tonnes of water flow out - quite cool!

Wed 12th March

We hada bit of a chill day today, we first did a walk around a geothermal wonderland called "Craters of the Moon" where huge craters are just in the ground and steam rises out of them and there was abig mud filled one with boiling mud - pretty hot, even standing back from it. We then went back to the Thermal Hot Stream which runs into the lake so Iain could have a dip ( i didn't want to - too mossy for me although the lake was crystal clear) - Iain went into the waterfall which was gushing water at about 42 degrees and got covered in moss - green bum for the rest of the day! In the evening we went to the Thermal Pools at our caravan park which ere lovely - too mega hot ones and a nice jacuzzi and cooler one, we just chilled for the evening there.

Thursday 13th March

We got up really early to take down our tent as we had a 1/2 day kayaking booked for 10am so off we went to the centre to meet the guide. Us and 4 others joined the guide and headed to Acacia Bay, Taupo to kayak to Mauri Rock Carvings. We were in a 2 man sea kayak with Iain at the back steering and the way ourt to the carvings wasn't too bad, but the way back was tough on the arms as we were against the waves! The carvings were amazing, totally different to aboriginal art, some were 200 yrs old and the huge carving was done in the 1970s.

After our kayak trip we started our drive to Rotorua where on the way we went off a bit down a dirt track to a natural thermal stream and waterfall in the middle of now where ( good old Lonely Planet Guide!) and took a dip with 4 others in boiling mineral water, lovely to chill in. As we drove into Rotorua the egg smell was awful and we thought that there was no way that we could last 2 nights in a tent with that smell so we stopped at a backpackers to check for vacancies and the owner was lovely, they had 1 twin left and because it was being redecorated, knocked money off for us. We then noticed 2 funky old caravans in the drive - 1 with a cute double bed and asked if we could have that, so we got a "vegabond' for $40/night and its so cosy and it rained all night last night so we would have been flooded if we had been in our tent!

Friday 14th March

We went for a short run in the forest nearby and then went to the "Buried Village" where back in the 180's the village was completed submerged by a volcanic eruption similar to Pompeii - pretty amazing to see what was found after excavations as recently as 1994.

This afternoon we went Grade V (most dangerous) River Rafting on Kaituna river with 1 other girl and our guide in the raft - We did a few small rapids, then a 3m and 1m waterfall and then near the end we did a huge 7m waterfall which was amazing and we didn't capsize!! Just after we went down a smaller waterfall and the girl was thrown out and i landed on top of Iain ( still in the raft tho!), we did some fun tricks in the water and a had a waterfall massage and then a swim down the river for a bit - really good fun & i would definately do that adventure sport again!

Tomight we are off to the "Polynesian Spa" @ the lake side which has 13 thermal pools and spas overlooking Lake Rotorua, think it will be really nice as it will be dark and cold outside and we'll be toastie! Tomorrow we are getting up to go and watch the "Lady Knox' Geyser spout out @ 10am and then off to Hell's Gate on our way to Whakatane ( The Bay of Plenty) which is a Mud bath and spa - mud wrestling ahoy!

Enjoy our long blog and speak to you all soon!

The adventures of C & I xx