Hey kids, left Aukland yesterday. We had a nice couple of days in the Fat Camel Hostel - met up with Rory and Graham who are being our personal slaves - they sort hostels out, transport and carry beer from the supermarket! Had a good night out, met up with some of Sarah's friends from Uni..... went to the Globe bar and danced the night away with the locals!

Next day Em was VERY hungover but Nat and Sarah saw the sunshine and were suprisingly quite fresh so dragged her to Mission Bay where we sunbathed and watched the boys play with their ball which can pass many an hour for them - they are quite imaginative! As the boys have been starving for the last few months (due to lack of funds) they didn't have the strength to walk back but us girlies did and saw some beautiful views of the city - took us over 2 hours so by the time we got back we were walking in a new way and very ready for some cheese on toast! It was Very hot but being very windy we didn't realise how burnt we were getting until the next day when Em found bubbling burns on her forehead and chin.... don't worry Mother Hird it's gone down now!

That night we all slept well and got up early to catch the magic bus to next stop Rotorua. However on the way, Mr. "Sweet Azz" Driver made us stop on route to see rabbits being shorn (unimpressed!) and then gave us the option of black water rafting or going to see the glo worms, but as they charge extortionate prices over here to enter caves we decided the beer garden was a much better option and had some team bonding over a crate of local ale and caught a few more rays (Mother King would be impressed)!

A few hours later we were back on the road to Rotorua and got dropped off at the Crash Palace! Rotorua sounded exciting.... until we arrived and smelt the unfresh air - which smells of poo, actually it's sulphur 'cos of all the geothermal activity in the area - lots of pools of bubbling water and mud....... nice! But not really this as there isn't any kind of transport in the area - we are pretty stuck without a car! Travelling on tomorrow thank God - it should be more fun and on route we are visiting some mud baths to do some mud wrestling!

Over and out for now, we will report soon....

Love Em, Sarah and Nat xxx