Today we woke up to the sound of rain and so decided to head into town and do some organisational stuff - we also managed to find a wonderful little cafe called Fat Dog where we had a superb brunch, including great coffee for me and a huge bowl of hot chocolate for Nic. Rotorua is also known as sulphur city - must be something to do with the all pervasive stench and steam arising from the strangest locations. In the campsite we could hear bubbling from our van and sure enough we looked over to see a plume of steam coming from some bushes. Not surprising when you realise that the whole area has the most energetic thermal activity in the country. There is also a large Maori population here and the tourist industry is thriving. The weather cleared up for the afternoon so we headed out to Hell's Gate, or Hell's Kitchen as Nic kept calling it - oh, the power of the media!! George Bernard Shaw visited it in 1934 and said "I wish I had never seen the place, it reminds me too vividly of the fate theologians have promised me". Who am I to say, but I think he may have been exaggerating slightly - but maybe we were spoilt be seeing White Island first. See what you think from the photos. I think Nic summed it up when she described it as a 'Legoland White Island'!! From here we headed round Lake Rotorua to go and have a LOOK at the Zorbing at the Agrodome. Zorbing was invented here and involves travelling down hill in an inflated double plastic sphere, held together with shock cords. As we pulled up there were 2 small children about to head down the hill, so we stayed to watch and yes it seemed like a great idea. So off we went up the hill and then dived inside the orb along with some warm water. As we set off down the hill we were screaming and laughing hysterically - the kids had stayed to watch and could hear us from the very top!! What a laugh!! We headed back into town and went to the supermarket before being really lazy and going out for dinner!! We stopped at a Sizzler and were mighty disappointed - the salad bar resembled the ones you get in a Harvester. On the way back to the campsite we stopped at the local Kiurau Park to look at yet more steam. Off to bed now S & N xx