taking on New zealand in a spaceship called Nezmo!!!! so after enjoying the moderate luxury of our hostel in Auckland Lu and I tramped over to meet Amber and Holly at where they were staying. However their equivalant of a treat was five star luxury suite next to auckland sky tower courtesy of Amber's dad . lush! after a fair amount of un-called for snobbery from the hotal staff we picked the girls up and headed off to collect our vehicle and home for the next two weeks - our very own bright orange spaceship!!!! unfortunately that didnt go as easily as it sounds, it turns out they dont have a four birth there for us to take even though we had booked like three weeks before so we ennded up faffing around for the entire day and having to drive down to Hamilton to pick up our actual car!!! that giant ball ache over we got comfy opened the map and set our sights on one of the most stinky places on earth Rotorua!!! yayy!!! pulled into a ludicrously expensive campsite and spent our very first night in space yay!!! Actually i have to say it wasnt too bad - envitably tempers will flare when u put four girls and all their stuff into a vehicle no bigger than a sardine can but we cooked some good grub, set up the bed and the 'portaloo' cabin upstairs and settled ourselves in to watch a DVD pretty cool eh? didnt sleeep to badly until i rolled over and found myself right next to the pod door in a very drafty spot!! the next day we wound down the portaloo - paid the ludicrously hefty campsite fees and headed out to explore Rotorua- conclusions = cold beautiful and very smelly!!! but still beautiful! after a brief diversion when we realisesd we'd left both the medical kits in the car and cooking sausages in the car park next to a gigantic tin dog, we really saw some loverly volcano type thingys and walked alongside a beautiful eggy smelling creek! lol after that wonderul sensory sensation we headed south to Taupo where in the pouring rain we set our camp up in, well, a car park really but it does have a lovely riverside location! Today we did some more lovely volcano related things including visiting the craters of the moon very creepy slightly less smelly volcanic activity type place! then went honey tasting mmm yummy and saw a beautiful waterfall clled Huka falls! also somehow think we may have booked oursleves a skydive, for tomorrow!! - so if the weather permits there is a distinct possiblity i might just be throwing myslef out of a plane tomorrow afternoon! sounds like fun really doesn't it?????????? think i might have space cabin fever or something!!! love you all and if u die tomorrow dont fight over my possesions!! xxxxx steffie