Today, we started off by visiting Orakei Korako, billed as New Zealand's best geothermal park, and it didn't disappoint. You pull up next to a lake, and see on the other side, a massive silica terrace flowing into the water. After a quick boat ride across, you get to walk up alongside it, and through the bush to get some pretty awesome views. All the colours in the photos are real, and as a result of either mineral deposits, or algae blooms. Mother Nature a...

First of all - Rotorua stinks! OK, that's a slight exaggeration. As it's a centre of geothermal activity, there is a distinct sulphurous note hanging around. You kind of get used to it. It's a bit like the smell that hangs around after fireworks. This morning, we headed off to Whakarewarewa Thermal Village. It's an actual village with around 30 Maori families living there, just outside Rotorua. The village is built on and around a serious of geothermal...

Today, we got up nice and early and headed to the airport, to board a chopper to fly us over to White Island; New Zealands most active marine volcano. And it was brilliant. We flew 25km over the Pacific Ocean, at around 600ft, to White Island, which looked pretty much like your everyday volcanic cone. But it was nothing compared to the view that met us when we got around the other side to come in to land. It looked like the whole side of the island had been...

I'd love to tell you where we've been, but I've signed a confidentiality agreement to prevent it! I can tell you, that we went to the farm just outside Matamata, where the set for Hobbiton was built for the Lord of the Rings Films. Good stuff. I felt a bit like a giant wandering around the little hobbit holes. All good fun, and set in the most stunning area. Rolling green hills, a nice big tree overlooking a pretty little lake. Thoroughly enjoyed it!

Today, we started heading south. First stop was back to Orewa to have the water pump swapped over. The new pump was actually waiting for us when we arrived, and swapped over within the hour, and actually works! How about that for service?! We then continued on our journey to the Coromandel Peninsula, west of Auckland. We stayed a few minutes walk away from Hot Water Beach. Unfortunately, I haven't posted up any pictures, as I didn't bother to take my ...