Okay, it has been a while due to a lack of internet and motivation to start writing! In other words, I am having a great time and can't find the time to write, there is always something else to do around here, other people to meet and to get to know.

So Neil and I went back to Auckland on Monday I think it was, we met up with Sebastian and Ellie for pizza and drinks afterwards. We entered a quiz at the hostel, but didn't win unfortunately. We did have a good time though! The next morning we all left Neil behind in Auckland because he had a friend coming and was going to get a later bus. So on this new bus, we met another group of people, a couple more Dutch people and some Belgians too. First stop was Raglan, a cool surfer town where Ellie, Liesbeth, Nathalie and I did a 2 hour walk that was brilliant, great nature and a lot of mud! We had a good night sleep and in the morning headed over to the Waitomo caves which are famous for their glow worms. When you are in the caves and look up at the ceiling seeing the glow worms feels like looking up at a starlit sky, amazing! The next stop was at a Maori tribe, where we would stay the night, get to know the Maori culture and share a meal with them. It was really interesting to learn about their culture and be part of some of the rituals.

The next morning we got French toast for breakfast and drove on to Rotorua. This is a town famous for its thermal activity. So every now and then there will be a little puddle of boiling hot water. Another fact about Rotorua is that there is a lot of sulfur in the ground, making the hot water springs smell really bad, like rotten eggs! The lake at which the town is located also has some hot water parts in it. We stayed at a great hostel there, the Crash palace. From Rotorua we went to visit Hobbiton, the sets where parts of the Lord of the Rings movies are shot and parts of The Hobbit. It was really nice to see and we learned some interesting facts about the films and about shooting the films. Another thing we did was jet boating. So we went on a speedboat and cruised along a river, it was absolutely gorgeous. When we got off the boat we went on a bit of a walk through a small side river and in very tight gorge to another hot water pool. We hung out there for a while and then the boat brought us back to shore, but not before the boat made a couple of cool spins and tricks.

Yesterday we got picked up from Rotorua by the next Stray bus and we went to Taupo. On the way we stopped at a waterfall and then we went to another great hostel where all of us watched the last part of the 7th Harry Potter movie. Another good night! Today we went on to the blue duck station, a very remote farm in the middle of nowhere, but on the way here, we got to see Mount Doom (another one of the LOTR sites). The farm is really nice, but again no internet so it will probably take a while before I'll be able to upload this blog. It is almost ten, I am going to bed, tomorrow we are going to do the Tangaroia crossing. This is one of the great day walks here in NZ and would take about 7 hours… Wake up time is at 5.15! Nighty night night!

Tine