Today is Saturday 16th April, 2005..... the day I jumped out of a plane at 15,000 ft... as you do! The weather was perfect - blue skies but with some patchy cloud to jump through and make the whole experience even more AWESOME! I went up in the plane with 4 other people to skydive, some doing 12,000 ft, but big brave others, like me maxing it at 15,000 ft - the highest jump you can possibly do! The plane ride up was incredible, gorgeous views, and ...

We went to some areas of real theraml activity today, including the Pohutu Geyser, pictured here! It erupts up to 30m into the air, and made lots of noises!! In the afternoon we had a mud bath and sulphuric bathe!! Very cleansing, and supposed to lift toxins from within to clear the mind, body and soul!! Off to see some more volcanic creations tomorrow, then on to Taopo! Although it is chilly here, it has been clear blue skies every day, so we ar...

Hello from smelly but special Rotorua! We arrived last night and are staying in a hostel called Treks - its amazing! Only a few months old, everything is really modern, clean and high quality - Fleur and I are super impressed! Anyway, more important than the lovely hostel is the area itself. I found my geography lessons of all those years ago coming alive today, as we wandered around what is literally a geothermal wonderland! There are bits of mud bu...

Every single thing has made me smile and think 'wow'! New Zealand is definitely b-eutiful!! So here is a rundown... We left Auckland on Monday morning - it was funny to be back in the drivers seat but pretty easy as we have a sweet little silver car we have named Clive, or BuBu when he is being good! We drove around 4 hours up the northern peninsula, through rolling hills and lots of cows to get to the Bay of Islands. The sky was clear blue and we ha...

Ladies and Gentleman... Greetings from the city of sails! We have had 2 days in Auckland getting ourselves prepared for a months whistlestop tour of New Zealand. This included sorting out hiring a car! Wow - a car! We will be mobile again and no longer relying on the lovely overnight Greyhound buses of Australia (actually a bit sad about that though to be honest!). Think we have picked up quite a bargain... pretty sure it wont quite be an Aston, but will...