Our next destination was to Lake Taupo which is almost in the centre of the North Island and is huge! The lake was caused by a massive volcanic explosion almost 26'500 year ago and is one of the biggest explosions of all time. As you are probably gathering like us New Zealand has in the past not been the safest of places to live!

We travelled to Taupo with our friends again and stayed in a nice place called the backpackers retreat. When we got there it was raining and pretty much stayed that way for the 3 days we were there! There are so many great outdoor things to do here but we didn't get chance to do most of them with the weather being so rainy. We visited a thermal pools place first which was really good and had lots of nice hot spas, then we attempted to go to an obstacle course which looked good but as the rain continued we ended up in a honey making centre tasting honey and liquors all afternoon! That evening we had a great chilli con carne the hostel made for $5 a bowl!

The next day we said our goodbyes to Kirstie and Darren as they were heading to Auckland to try and get an earlier flight to America. Me and Ady decided to brave the weather and do a bit of touristy sightseeing as the boat trip on the lake was cancelled due to the rain. We went to a park first were there is a stream running through which is boiling hot which is mad! Apparently loads of tourists go in the stream in the cooler areas in the summer but we decided not to this time! On our way back we went to the Huka falls and Aratiatia Dam were you can watch the flood gates open for 30 minutes and see the river water rapidly rising which sounds boring but was actually really good! Afterwards we saw a sign for indoor rock climbing and as it was raining we decided to give it a go! I wasn't going to do it at first but as it was quite cheap I thought I would give it a go! We ended up spending 2 and a half hours there the time just flew by and I even managed to get to the top a few times, but Ady was really good at it and even tackled the harder areas.

After the 3 days we made our way to Rotorua which isn't too far from Taupo. On the way to Rotorua we stopped at the Orakei Korako Thermal Valley which was once the world's most active thermal areas. We had to get a ferry over a lake to the area then you walk around lots of mud pools, geysers and other very interesting thermal areas. We spent a few hours here then carried on to Rotorua. The first thing you notice about Rotorua is the smell and then the steam coming up from the ground all around the city, it looks like the whole city is going to blow up at any moment! Rotorua has the most thermal activity in the whole of New Zealand and is nicknamed Sulphur city as the whole city stinks of rotten eggs!

We stayed at the central backpackers hostel which was quite nice and a lot better than the YHA which we looked at and cheaper! That afternoon we went on a walk that the hostel owner had shown us around the city as the weather was really sunny. The first place we went to was Kuirau Park which has a lot of volcanic activity. It's just like a normal park except all over the place is small or large fenced off areas with big hot bubbling pools! It was so crazy to see so many hot pools bubbling away, apparently sometimes they just pop up overnight and some people wake up to find that part of their garden is now a boiling hot pool but far too hot to go in and bathe! After the park we then carried on and got a bit lost but eventually found Ohinemutu which is a Maori Village by the lakeside and is still used by the Maori people in Rotorua. The lakeside was a really nice area and the lake was full of black swans which I hadn't seen before!

The next day we went to the Polynesian spas, as if we haven't done enough spas but these were recommended by quite a few people so we thought we would try them out! People have been coming to the spas since 1886 due to the healing properties that the waters have. If you have any silver jewellery on it instantly turns black when entering the water. Adys ring that he didn't think was silver turned Paua shell colour which Ady really liked but it turned back a cleaner silver colour after a few days! The spas were really modern and for a Saturday morning they were very quiet with only 8 people in the whole adult pools area. We ended up talking to an elderly couple in one of the spa pools. They were from New Zealand and come here every day as it helps greatly with arthritis. They were saying how much they loved England and would .love to live there; so many people who live in NZ love England and would love to live thee which is mad as NZ is so lovely! Anyway when we were back at the reception area they came over to us and invited us out to lunch their treat! They said they loved England so much and were looked after when they were in England so wanted to buy us lunch which was so nice of them, but so many people are like that over here really friendly and accommodating!

That evening we went on a Maori Culture experience called Matai. We got picked up from the hostel and taken to the Matai place which was 10 minutes out of the city. When we got there we got given a table number and had to sit at that table. There were about 12 tables with about 10 people on each so it was quite a busy night. After having an introduction by the main Maori guy we got given a blanket and a torch and had to walk to the river where a traditional Maori boat (waka) with Maori men dressed up inside went up and down chanting Maori. Before the boat came I had a siobhanism I said to Ady do we get in the boat when it comes as I had missed what the guy had said about it just being part of the show! Ady said yeah Siobhan 100 people are going to get on 1 thin wooden boat!

After the boat display we went to an outdoor theatre to watch a Maori concert where there were men and women showing us different songs and had us up doing part of the haka.

They also talked about all the different traditions and meanings behind different weapons, tattoos and songs.

When the concert was finished we ate a big dinner of traditional Maori Hangi which is food that is cooked in the ground. It was really nice and we had chicken, lamb, sweet potato (kumara) and veg etc. After the dinner we went back outside to do a walk of the forest were the guy showed us the different trees and what they were used for and some glow worms! The evening lasted till about half ten at night and was a really good night, afterwards we dashed to the pub to catch the start of the biggest rugby match of the season NZ vs OZ!

The next day we left this smelly city for Waitamo Caves on the west side of the North Island.