Kia Ora

We have had a busy few days and since we last spoke we had been busy buying Halloween costumes and dressing up for a Halloween party on a cruise boat in Taupo. This was a really good night with plenty of amazing costumes and games that Sophia had arranged for us all. After the boat we headed into town to Base Backpackers bar to finish off the night - here we were talked into trying a Jagermeister which was lovely and are now addicted to the stuff!!!

After Taupo we headed to Rotoura - which smells of rotten eggs due to the thermal pools rumbling away under the ground. Here we did a brief city sights tour on the bus before heading to the Agrodome where we watched 'Sheep Shearing' whilst seeing at least 20 different types of sheep, a dog hearding geese and baby lambs being fed by the audience. This was a good experinece but one that wont be repeated. Later in the afternoon we visited Tui Puia, which is a culture centre demonstrating the traditional side of New Zealand. In there we saw the Maui people perform aswell as the thermal and mud pools and the weaving and crafting that they still use today. This was really interesting to see and hear about.

After this we went back to the hotel, where we enjoyed a Hangi and Concert. This involved a massive dinner that had been cooked under ground and a traditional Maui cultural performance, where they involved the audience in the dance moves for the girls and the Hacki chant for the men. Later in the evening we met Evonne who was on our previous tour in Australia. She works in Rotoura on a farm and made the effort to see us for a couple of hours, which was nice of her.

Yesterday we had an early start and went Zorbing - yay!!! Luckily we were not disappointed as both the Zorbit and Zydro were working - which meant we didn't have to get wet on a very cold day!!! lol Teresa was first down the hill and fully enjoyed it and wanted to go again, whereas Lindsay felt sick and looked white as a sheet after climbing out. Teresa got photos and will add them tomorrow hopefully. After an hour and a half we headed to a place called Waitomo, where we went through the Ruakuri caves and saw cave formations and glow wrom activities. Again this was all very good to see and very interesting to hear about. Last night we had a Pizza deal at the hotel and later headed to the one and only pub in the area. A few of the tour people did a 'Round The World Beer Challenge' but only three managed to complete drinking all 11 drinks!!! But boy did they look rough this morning lol

Today we have been travelling pretty much all day to get to the Bay Of Islands. On the way we stopped off in Auckland for an hour to drop of the tour people who were not continuing there travels to the Bay Of Islands. This was quite sad as we have been travelling with them now for 13days and are now down from 50 too 18 people!!! Plenty of leg room for us now on the bus which means more sleep.

Anyway we will add more pictures hopefully tomorrow of our travels and the Halloween party.

Speak to you all soon

Teresa and Lindsay x x