It's been a while since we last updated the site and we've travelled alot of K's !! We were hoping the weather in the Northland would be slightly warmer than where we had been, but if anything it was worse. It seemed to rain every day, dampening not only our spirits but our physical selves (the leaky sunroof is better but still a little tempramental !) We had another help exchange job lined up on a campsite which was located right on an estuary and from their website looked really nice. The drive there was in torrential rain and we had been driving on the red light for about 30k's before we found a store which had petrol. It was such a touch as he was just about to close and there wasn't another gas station for about another 30-40 k's ! After a really long drive, down un-made roads which seemingly led knowhere we found the campsite. A lady named jackie was the owner, as we approached the site all we could think of as we asked 'are you jackie ?' was the infamous moment when Jackie Stallone walked into the big brother house and responded in her slurred way 'yea jackie !' We couldn't stop laughing, just as well otherwise we would've cried. We managed to keep it together as we met Jackie and she showed us to our cabin, it was ok, had a fridge, little sink, table and chairs and a wildly sloping bed ! The next day we explored the camp, it was in a beautiful setting, right on the huge eustaury and next to the longest foot bridge in the southern hemisphere. However we were the only ones there except Jackie and Bob, a rather strange chap who was married but spent seven months of the year away from home in his camper van. There was a shop next to the campsite which sold mainly out of date goods and nothing else !. The nearest bar was a good 30k's away and the nearest town a good 45 minute drive. The work was gardening, weeding mostly which was ok but Jackie didn't seem to have any other jobs and it started to get really tedious. We were due to be there for two weeks but after five days it started to really get to us. We would've have been ok if there was some other people there, it hadn't been raining all the time and hate to say it if we'd had a T.V. in our chalet. Jackie had lots of nicley appointed cabins (which we weren't in) which had T.V.s, so I asked her one evening if we could sit in one and watch T.V. and she wouldn't let us ! Theres only so many games of cards you can play before you go mad ! Because the nearest town was such a long way out, we felt really trapped ! So we decided to bail out and left after one week. Jackie was ok about it, we told her a white lie that we needed to go and get some paid work. So we left the camp feeling like we'd been realeased. We headed south & enquired about a few casual jobs working on orchards, we have been offered jobs pruning but it won't start till next week. So we headed to Rotorua as we'd been told there's loads of things there to keep you occupied ! The first thing to hit you as you enter Rotorua is the smell ! due to all the thermal activity and the sulpherous pools, it smells of rotten eggs and really gets in your lungs ! On the flip side it means most of the campsites have hot spa pools ! We decided to treat ourselves and went to a thermal park called 'Hells Gate'. It has a huge 'garden' which you walk around, there's loads of huge bubbling pools, steaming cliffs, hot waterfalls and of course a really bad eggy smell. After that we went and had a mud bath and thermal spa, it was great, the mud was really warm and soothing, if a little smelly, in fact it's taken me days to get the smell of egg out of my beard ! The next day we planned to go to the Agrodome which has lots of extreme activities form bungee to Zorbing to jet boating etc. Zorbing was the one thing we really fancied doing, you basically roll down a hill in a huge inflatable ball, they also chuck in a few gallons of water so you slide around inside. It looked a little lame, with only a small hill and not nearly extreme enough for the Wilsons !!! So in the end we went to another area and went for some high speed luge ! There are several runs of about 2K's each, you fly down them at as they wind their way down the hill. Luckily they have brakes as some of the corners are really tight and if your not careful can be thrown off them. I managed to get it on two wheels a few times ! Today we decided to go white water rafting, we choose to go down the highest commercially rafted fall in the world, 7 meters ! We got kitted up and met our guides who thankfully were really good. We started off and immediately hit the rapids, it was great fun and we were soon soaked ! We eventually got to the 'big one' and were told there were three possible scenarioes . 1. We go over the fall and everyone stays in the boat. 2. We go over the fall and the boat flips over, we hang on and stay under the boat untill it's safe to surface. 3. We go over the falls and the boat flips, we all get thrown out and then it's each for his own under the 30 tonnes per second of falling water. I favoured option 1 or two ! So we set off paddling hard watching this huge abys approaching, we all took up the 'hold' position and held on for dear life as the raft plunged down the huge seven meter fall, we almost made it, then at the last minute were flipped by the current, before we knew it we were under water trying to remember what we'd been taught. We both found the airpockets under the raft and stayed there trying to control our breathing which was taking a beating from the cold, the water and the adrenaline. After what seemed like ages we were given the signal to move out from under the boat so it could be flipped back over. What a rush, we were both glad it had flipped as it was an amazing feeling to be alive ! We carried on down the river with huge smiles and a real sense of achievment. We're in Rortorua for a few more days, then hopefully start the job on Monday in Turanga, as always we'll keep you posted !