A lazy day today which meant we did not head out of the site until 11ish. We had heard the sulphur smell was unbearable but in all honesty it has been fine. As we left the sight we found Alex's lamby had lost an arm, fortunately she is not upset by this turn of events. We walked through the park looking at the thermal activity and ended up in eat streat, yes that it the way it is spelt ! The temperature was unbearable hot. We had lunch out and about which was lovely but expensive, we did not get a sense of it being as vulgar as the nickname Rotavegas suggests.

Walked along the lake front and found a fabulous park for the girls to play on, sometimes the subtitle of this trip could be Playparks of NZ. While the girls played we sheltered from the sun as best we could. We then had an ice-cream, a bad idea ! The sun melted the icecream so quickly it was not easy to eat. Elizabeth had the worst of it as her cone broke due to being soggy at the bottom and the ice cream deposited itself on the pushchair next to her. I tried to salvage it but it all went wrong. Alex just ended up with rivers of ice cream down her arms !

We walked back to the campsite through the Maori village and saw St Faith's church which was a lovely blend of Maori and Christian. The etched glass window of Jesus in a Maori cloak was fabulous and if you caught it in the right was it looked like he was walking on the lake.

We then made our way back to the campsite and took the girls swimming. They both had a whale of a time ! They are gaining in confidence every time we take them swimming. Elizabeth did some proper movement in the water to David's thumbs rather than just floating around. After swimming hugs and hot milk were in order and we watched the birds come into the van and then fly off. Elizabeth also informed us our noses were too stinky to swap with hers.

At 5:45 we went to meet our bus for the Mitai hangi and concert. While we waited we watched a house being moved, the house, not the contents. We had seen firms advertising this service on our way down from Auckland but here it was actually happening. It was quite a feat to get it out and they did, I think, crack a post, but it was still impressive.

The hangi and concert was excellent and I think the girls enjoyed it, although Alex and her desires for wee-wee were pretty annoying. The show was a good mix of humour and culture. The 4 poi dance was incredible.

After the show we had a meal, delicious, it had the taste of a BBQ but much more tender.

We then did a night time tour of Rainbow Springs which was lovely apart from the large number of steps we had to lift the girls up and down in their pushchair. We did just about see kiwi there, well David did more than that as the annoying group of old people holding him up stopped him and being quite so annoying as they showed him a couple of kiwis up close. The guide was very good but if he had shouted Hidee mi one more time I would have been tempted to shout out ho-de-ho.

Returned to the bus for our journey home, Elizabeth is out of it and pretty much missed the entire Rainbow Springs tour. Both girls are shattered and both parents are too.

Overall, the girls are being very good. It is predictable that Elizabeth will have a tantrum at least once a day.

While I remember Elizabeth managed to knock the pushchair over sideways while she was in it, not sure how but she gave herself a fright.