We were fortunate enough to be invited by Russell and Judi from the Milford Track walk, to stay with them in their home in Rotorua by Lake Okareka whilst there. We were treated to a bedroom and our own bathroom on the top floor of their house, along with wine, cheese, and delicious barbecued steak for dinner (from Russell's PA at work who owns cows...Sophie never fulfilled her role quite so well)! After getting some advice on what to do in the area, and swapping some travel stories of New Zealand, we welcomed another bed outside of Barry!

The next day was spent doing some research into activities we wanted to do here and in Taupo, and in the afternoon heading out to 'Kerosine Creek', recommended by our hosts as a good free and natural hot spring, which we had been seeking for a while now! After an extremely bumpy drive down a gravel road, we wandered a couple of minutes into a forest to be rewarded with the hot spring. With only a few people there; mainly Chinese tourists striking various poses in the hot spring, it was the perfect setting, and just what we had been looking for. Rotorua is positioned over a very active geothermal area, creating a large release of hydrogen sulphide into the atmosphere, geysers and thermal mud pools, which all add together to make the city smell of egg sandwiches! We waded into Kerosine Creek which was as hot as a bath and mixed with the steam of a sauna! Every few minutes we would have to sit on a log to cool down before having another swim. The water, full of natural minerals made our hair and skin so soft, although when we got out after 40 minutes (we later learned you should only stay in about 20 minutes) we felt pretty light headed and sleepy! Heading back, that evening we were treated to another yummy dinner of sausages, and chatted to Russell and Judi over a few beers and glasses of wine! That evening, with it being the semi final of the cricket World Cup between New Zealand and South Africa, we all settled in to catch the last hour or so, which proved an entertaining match with New Zealand winning by the skin of their teeth in their last few balls by 2 runs. Saying goodbye to Russell that evening, who was heading off for a few days with work, we headed to bed in high spirits!

Next morning we headed to 'Wai-o-tapo thermal wonderland' in time to catch the 'Lady Knox Geyser', which erupts every day at 10.15am. Waiting with anticipation, when the geyser erupted with a little help from the addition of some soap like product poured into the geyser, it only shot up into the sky for a few seconds, and everyone left a little bemused. No bother, we explored the rest of the park for a couple of hours, filled with various bubbling mud pools, mineral terraces, brightly coloured neon lakes, and geothermal areas puffing out hot steam. That afternoon we visited 'Whakarewarewa', a living Maori village in the area. There we sampled a geothermal 'hangi', consisting of chicken, beef, potatoes and vegetables, along with a pudding, all cooked in a steam box under the ground, using only the heat of the geothermal earth. This was followed by a cultural performance by the local Maoris, which included a number of traditional songs and dances, including the intimidating Haka tribal warrior dance. At one point they tried to make us all join in with a Maori version of the Hokey Cokey, which although the Indian tourists were first up and loving it, we found very cringey! We then got a tour of the village from a guide who kept making strange inappropriate jokes, although was very knowledgable and showed us the communal thermal baths the villagers still use to wash in each day, how the food is cooked, and explained a lot of the interesting traditions of the village and significance of the carvings decorating the village buildings. That evening we spent updating blog and chatting to Judi before heading up for our last night before going back to Barry! Once again we were extremely grateful for the generous hospitality we had been given by Russell and Judi, providing us with a little luxury to help us along the way!

Next morning we made a brief visit to walk through the the 'Redwood forest', full of giant trees, before heading to Taupo to organise a skydive and the Tongariro Crossing hike that we wanted to do whilst there. Unfortunately the weather was against us, and we realised neither activity would really be viable for the following few days. With the time getting on however, we decided to spend the evening camping there and returned to Barry to find a note stuck to the windscreen from Caroline who we had met in Martinborough! She was in Taupo and had seen Barry (who she was keen to possibly buy from us when we were ready to sell), so we messaged her to meet us at the campsite we were heading to. On the way we made a quick stop at 'Huka Falls', an impressive and furious fast flowing set of rapids and waterfalls, before arriving at a free campsite by a river. The site was packed and had the atmosphere of a festival full of young backpackers, various music and a lot of drinking! Being a bit more boring than some others we simply cooked up some dinner and Trevor went off to rinse the food off the dishes in the river. Coming back half soaked, Sophie was gutted she'd missed him slipping down the mud bank and into the river!

Next day it was time to head off to Hobbiton...something Trevor had been looking forward to, being a Lord of the Rings fan. The tour took us all around where filming took place, where the attention to detail was pretty astounding. We walked around all the hobbit 'holes', including 'bag end' where Bilbo Baggins lived, and even had lunch and a beer in the 'Green Dragon' tavern which appeared in the films. The guide explained how a fake oak tree was made for the set, which held over 250,000 material leaves imported from Korea and stuck on individually. In the centre of Hobbiton there was still a real vegetable patch continually maintained by a number of gardeners. During filming, staff on the set had to wash the hobbits' clothes daily and hang them on washing lines so that the paths around Hobbiton looked authentically worn! When the sun goes down, windows in the hobbit holes light up and smoke even bellows from the chimneys, it was all quite impressive! No wonder the films cost millions of dollars to make...

We spent the next couple of nights at 'Oparau Roadhouse' near Waitomo, a free camping spot attached to an old fashioned road house run by some very strange characters; Bill and Brenda. The roadhouse was constantly busy all day, with truckers stopping for a pie and chips, and locals popping down to say hello to Bill, who was always wearing the same filthy blue vest and very short shorts whilst propping his leg up on the bench in front of us to talk...rather uncomfortable! We nonetheless enjoyed lazing around for a day, getting free pies and breaded chicken at the end of the evening which hadn't been sold that day and seeing lots of strange characters come and go! We felt refreshed and ready to do a few adrenaline sports in the next couple of days...