It seems I will simply have to wait til another year to dive with sharks, as today they simply weren't playing. Up at 6am, we spent a good 5 hours at sea searching for them, and only found two. Of course, they didn't show up til we'd pulled the cage up, and were gone before we could get it in the water again! It was at least a good fishing trip - the two sharks we saw included one that was on the end of our fishing line - catching all manner of things be they ...

Today was the first day of 'East As', billed as the way to see the Maori way of doing things. Obviously, the Maori way of doing things is to get up very early in the morning after not getting much sleep. The first stop of the day was at Whakatane, where Pedro (our guide) instructed us in how to seek a blessing from a tree. It seems the way to garner the favour of the elders (embodied in the tree) for a journey is to place an offering of flowers and other plantli...

So, we'll ignore the bit about the fire alarm going off at 2:15 in the morning shall we? While the last groups did their caving trip, the rest of us went for a bit of a walk followed by the bizarre spectacle of rabbit-shearing. Yes folks, rabbit-shearing. I'll let the photos do the talking, there is very little to say except that the fur is lovely and soft, but also very warm when it comes off the rabbit. Oh, and by strange coincidence the rabbits they use are G...

Rotorua is right in the centre of New Zealand's geothermal activity, and today started with a trip to Te Puia, just a few minutes out of town, for a tour of the mud pools and geysers. Tempting though it may be to try the local mud, this should only be done with the stuff you find in the shops - the stuff in the ground is approximately 95 degrees at the surface and would have a much greater exfoliating effect than is pleasant. There were also displays here of ma...

Our early start today was foiled by some sort of fan belt-related issue, and it was only thanks to the presence of an aussie-rules football, a set of uno cards and some very creative imaginations that we didn't go mnad waiting for a replacement bus to get to us. The upshot of this was that we missed our trek in Karangahake Scenic Reserve, but on the bright side we still got to see Paeroa (where the 'P' in L&P comes from; L&P is an endemic soft drink, sa...