Kel: The next day we visited Te Puia which is a maori village (theme park). It was pretty commercial but quite informative. We wandered round a remodel of a traditional maori village, understood their culture a bit more, and watched a traditional welcome into the maori home, hakka dance etc... even a love song. I particularly enjoyed seeing the polynesian influence on dance and music and realising that it's not all about aggression. However it was much more fun watching Matthew too scared to say no to a massive maori guy that asked him to go on stage and practise the hakka, tongues and everything (I've got a video don't worry) The park was based on thermal springs and we did manage to see a massive one blow off before we left too (technical term)

After that we headed north a bit and .... I went zorbing. For those who don't already know, it's a bit of fun thought up by the kiwis that involved getting into a massive plastic cushioned ball that's filled with some water and was then left to roll down a zig zag hill. M didn't do it but knew it was me coming down from the screaming giggles. Very funny.

After drying off we carried on north to the beautiful bay of plenty. The sun was shining and we seemed to get the perfect spot on the coast for our last night with our wee Casper. We drunk our last two bottles of pop from Malborough (well a Deutz and a Malbec .. a bit different for NZ but v v enjoyable) to wash down a classy lamb kebab from the local shop. It was emotional.