Back on the Stray bus again, we spent two days in Rotorua. We went to the hot geothermal areas and saw some BIG geysers (not geezers!) We saw NZ's largest the Pohutu (in the pic) and lots of bubbling mud pools. And yes the place does smell of rotten eggs! WE spent a day at Te Puia where we watched a traditional Maori welcome ceremony and saw the Haka dance being performed, it was really good. We saw the locals making flax weaves and wooden Maori carvings, we also saw our first Kiwi bird, they are sooo cute!

The next day we left our hostel, Hot Rocks and met our new driver Thumper who took us to Taupo. WE watched him doing some stag roaring on the way (roaring at the stags) which was really funny as they roared back!

We had decided today was the day- we were to jump out of a plane! Aaaaargh! WE were feeling brave so we threw caution to the wind (excuse the pun) and chose to jump from 15,000ft instead of 12,000 (almost 3 miles woo hoo) with 1 whole minute of freefall! The sky was clear and it was sunny, you could see for miles, and the view over Lake Taupo was amazing. We even got to jump through some big fluffy white clouds (the scary bit). We went up in a bright pink plane after having to perform for our dvds (cringe) we may show you the evidence if you're lucky! WE were geared up in our lovely jump suits with our hats and goggles which looked liked swimming caps. We got our harnesses attached and got into the plane where we were strapped to the instructors, we had to watch two other girls jump from 12,000ft first which was quite unerving as the plane seemed to go much higher afterwards and we were freezing! The scary part was dangling off the side of the plane with our feet underneath, but the freefall was well worth it. We got T.shirts, photos and DVDs and even got a Limo ride back to the hostel.