Hiya

Ok, really ned to catch up!!

From Waitomo caves we travelled Rotorua which is one of the most thermally active in the North Island. On the way there we stopped off at a sheep show and then onto the zorbing centre. It was a horrible day, cold and wet but two of us decided to give it a go - me and a girl Sam I've met on the tour. We did the water zorb where they fill the zorb with water, you get in and then roll down a big hill - and it was awesome, so much so I would have loved to have done it again!!

From there we headed to Rotorua itself. If you have ever been to Rotorua you will know about the smell - I wasn't warned about this and my god it was such a strong smell of eggs, obviously from the sulphur. And you'd think that you'd get used to it, but I just seem to get worse!!! But anyway, this place is great - as you can imagine, I was like a kid at Disney Land. I dragged one of the other girls down to a park where you can see all the mud pools and geysers - i think I must have taken about 30 odd pictures in a matter of 10 minutes - I'm such a geek...I don't care...I loved it!!!!!!

On the way back we headed to a Polynesian Spa which was lovely, we soaked in a 39 degree bath which overlooked a lake...just what I needed!!

In the evening we had a Maori Hangi meal and concert which comprised of a traditional maori meal - meat and vegetables cooked by steam in an oven, and a concert with a local Maori arts group who showed some of the traditional songs and dances from the Maori culture. It was brilliant, a few of the grils were dragged up on stage to learn soem of the womens dances and the lads had to learn the hakka - very funny!!!!

The follwoing day we headed to Taupo. After a long night of drinking games me and girl Suzie decided to go on a Huka Falls Jet - you know the ones that do the 360 degree turns and such...hmmmm....not so good with a hangover, apparently at one point I actually looked green. After that we took a helicopter over Lake Taupo and more geothermal springs and the power station...NOOOOOO!!! The views were awesome. In the evening we had a boat cruise on Lake Taupo with dinner and drinks, which was cool.

Wellington - On the way to Wellington we stopped off to take photo's of Mount Doom...very exciting!! When we got to Wellington we headed straight up to Mount Victoria which overlooks the city and this gave us great views of Wellington and the surrounding area. By the time we got to the hotel we had to find ourselves some outfits for tonights Op Shop Prom, so down to the charity shops to find a dodgy dress or suit. Well the lads decided to get dresses so the girls bought shirts and ties. What is it with lads and dresses....????? Anyway, we went to a bar for dinner and had a great night, I've never laughed so much - got some very funny pictures.

The following day in Wellington a few of us went on a day trip to see some of the scenes from Lord of the Rings but to be honest wasn't really worth the money we only really got to see where the hobbits hid on the road out of the Shire and then we headed up to where Rivendell was shot. Now if you've been on Facebook I've had some photo's of me tagged wearing Elf ears and a cloak with a sword well that where Orlando Bloom had some of his photo's taken to promote the film - you have to do it(?!!).

From Wellington we got the ferry to the South Island...