Kia Ora as we say in New Zealand. I'm not offering an orange juice, I'm saying hello in Maori. We attended a Maori cultural evening last night and had a wonderful time - but more of that later.

There were two highlights of our third day in New Zealand. The first was breakfast on a farm and the other was a caving experience.

The farm was run by an elderly, slightly eccentric couple and a dog - Colin, Jan and Minty. They supplied us with a fabulous breakfast where everything was home grown and home made then they took us on a tour of their farm of which they were enormously proud. They let their animals out of the fields to come and play with us. Scotty, the ram, was the first to come out. Scotty and Minty were obviously friends because a second later Colin was shouting at the top of his voice "Minty, stop licking that sheep's arse!". Ten seconds later the sheep stampeded out of the paddock and knocked over and trampled a Swedish lady in our party. Colin roared out "Jan, Jan, the sheep have got a punter!!" The rest of us thought it was hilarious.

North Island is in many parts covered by a thick layer of limestone. This gets dissolved and eroded by under ground rivers and then the caves thus created fall in on themselves producing a spectacularly undulating landscape above ground. Underground there are thousands of km of caves and forms of life that have adapted to live in the darkness.

We took a tour to see the glow worms that inhabit many of the caves. The worms are the larval stage of a fly. The eggs are laid in the roofs of the caves in clusters. The larva exude a sticky thread which hangs down into the darkness below them. In order to attract a mosquito or other flying insect onto their thread they emit a light from their bottoms. It is the same colour as these new blue Christmas lights.

We entered the cave and made our way down into the darkness wearing miners helmets with lights on them. We followed the course of an under ground river and about 200 yards in came to a small jetty and a rubber boat. We clambered in and switched of our lamps. Slowly, as our eyes dark adapted, the little blue lights appeared in the roof of the cave until, after about 5 minutes, there were millions of blue lights stretching away downstream. We floated off with the increasing roar of a waterfall ringing in our ears. After another 5 minutes we could make out each others faces and the walls of the cave. The roof looked like a galaxy of stars. Fortunately, when we reached the waterfall that was the end of the line for the boat and we were pulled slowly back to the jetty.

That evening we stayed in a hotel deep in 'Lord of the Rings' country. We should have been able to see Mount Doom but, unfortunately, it was shrouded in mist.

The next morning we set off in drizzling rain to get a view over Mordor and view the spot were Frodo and Sam first met Gollum. We stood around in the pouring rain, got thoroughly soaked and spent the rest of the morning steaming up the bus. By lunchtime the rain had stopped and we stopped for a picnic beside a hot river. Most of us got into the river and sat with a waterfall beating on our heads and shoulders. The water was hotter than a lot of baths that we have had and it was a really fun experience. That night we were taken to a traditional Maori village where we were greeted in traditional fashion by three warriors whose job it was to find out, by issuing insults and challenges, whether we came in peace. Having decided that we were not a threat, our elected chief touched noses with the Maori chief and we were admitted to the village where we were shown many aspects of village life. We were treated to some traditional singing and dancing and our chiefs were taught to perform the Haka. Our meal was made in a Hangi - a hole in the ground filled with volcanic rocks heated on a fire. The food is placed in the hole which is then covered for 3 hours. The resulting food was tender and delicious.

On the way home there was more singing on the bus. The driver kept going round a roundabout while the passengers sang 'Coming round the Mountains'. We must have gone around about 10 times. The driver wasn't too concerned because most of the police were his cousins.

We were very impressed with Maori culture and its integration into New Zealand life. The Maori people are happy, friendly and very outgoing. They appear to have good jobs and making a significant contribution to the life of the nation. This is in significant contrast to the lot of the aboriginal people whom we saw in Alice Springs.