Hey everyone, another quick update to let you know how we got on at our friends farm and what we have been upto at Lake Taupo so far. We set off at about 10.30 for the farm and stopped off at a few places Nigel had recommended on the way, tris decided to buy a fishing rod, it was killing him driving past all the fishing spots and not being able to do any, we fished at the beach in Gisbourne but didnt catch anything. We got to our friends place at about 5.30 and were greeted by them and their very cute westies. They cooked us a delicious raost dinner of lamb home grown on the farm followed by homemade berry ice cream and strawberries which was also really good. The next day we went on a tour of the farm which is huge so we took the quad bikes, they have lots of sheep, lambs, cows and calfs and Nigel explained to us how the farm works which was really interesting. We also got to feed a calf that had been rejected by its mum which we both loved. After our morning tour of the farm we went down to the beach house about a 40 minute drive away from the farm and went for a walk up a big hill where we got a really great view of the coast. On the way back from the beach we went to a Mauri hall which was really interesting to see followed by a visit to some caves near the farm. We had a really great couple of days and it was nice to see a side of New Zealand that we wouldnt normally get to see. The next day we set off for Lake Taupo, we stopped off for a look round a town called Napier on the way and tris did some more fishing. Today we left at 6 in the morning to do some fly fishing on the Tongariro river which we both really enjoyed. We had eight hours on the river with a guide who provided us with all the equipment and lunch. I caught one rainbow trout and tris caught 2 and nearly caught a third one but the line snapped. Both the fish were really big and we took them back to the hostel to cook them, they were really yummy and we ended up feeding three other people in the hostel kitchen there was so much fish, and we still had to throw some away!! Tomorrow I think we will have a really relaxed day after such an early start today, and the day after we leave for Aukland ready for our next flight to Hong Kong on the 4th. We will probably next update the blog in Hong Kong.

Love

Tris and Rach

xxxx