Well, I’ve got quite a lot to catch up on!

We spent the weekend in Rotorua as planned - we were lucky in our guide, Grahame Hall - the father of the lady Caroline has been staying with, who’s a Nuffield Scholar and ex Mayor of Rotorua! Grahame and his wife Sandy had kindly organised for us to go and see a Maori cultural evening on the Saturday night. This was brilliant fun - we saw warriors paddling a waka (canoe), watched the haka and other Maori songs and dances, had a demonstration of traditional weapons and games and had some delicious hangi cooked food. The funniest part of the evening was when one of the warriors fell out of the waka into the freezing cold water - I heard the quietest of swearwords and then he was back in character, hissing and pulling faces at the tourists while we took pictures!
Sunday was a whirlwind tour of Rotorua, with VIP treatment as Grahame accompanied us. We started off with a cooked breakfast with Grahame and Sandy, and then we went to the Agrodome for the show - saw some shearing and a cow being milked, which was OK, but I really enjoyed the Huntaways barking and backing, and Caroline being called up for some audience participation - feeding a baby goat! Then a brief stop to photograph a geyser through a fence. Next stop was Rotorua Museum, which is in the old bath house, where we watched a film on the volcanic history of Rotorua. Grahame warned me it would be a moving experience, and it was - the cinema seats were engineered to shake when earthquakes and volcanoes were described! After waving Grahame off, Caroline and I took the Skyline gondola to the top of the mountain, where we tried the luge - brilliant fun - and had a spot of lunch. Finally, we were off to Hell’s Gate to look at some stinky bubbling mud - spectacular but I was glad to get some fresh air! I dropped Caroline off at the bus station and headed back up to the coast to complete my last three days of seeing practice.

I decided to return to Thornton Beach for my last few days at the coast, and on Saturday morning, managed to get some pictures of it in daylight! Work experience this week has included me castrating some cats, watching a pig castration (it was seriously noisy on its way into the clinic) and the old British large animal classics - pregnancy diagnosis in a windy yard, standing in a drizzly field trying to get a pair of downer cows onto their feet, and pulling a dead calf. I’ve really enjoyed my time with the vets and was sad to leave yesterday!

What have I been up to today? I had a fairly prompt start from Thornton Beach and headed down here to Taupo. On my way into Taupo, I visited another geothermal walk - like Hell’s Gate, but more scenic bush and less smell! I also stopped at the Hukka Falls - a stunning series of waterfalls for a look. The weather took a turn for the rainy this afternoon, so I’ve had a good look around the Taupo Museum, which has an interesting volcanic history of the ski fields we’re hoping to head to tomorrow. The plan from here onwards? Caroline should be heading in on the bus in the next hour, and I reckon some good grub will be in order. I’m planning a rather unorthodox birthday - a bungee jump, a dip in the campsite’s thermal pool, catching the prawns for my lunch at Hukka prawn farm and a visit to some volcanic water terraces (if the weather’s nicer) before heading down to the ski area for some pre-ski social life! I also quite fancy the Hukka falls jet, a 30 minute jet boat ride to the base of the Hukka falls, but we’ll see how time allows! There’s some quite heavy snowfall at the ski fields - I’m not sure if this is good news yet as the snow cover is getting nice and heavy for snowboarding, but the ski fields have been closed yesterday and today because the weather’s been too bad!

Hope everyone’s well, keep it up with the comments! xxx