Have just arrived in Wellington and will now be here for the next 3 nights, after which we take the ferry and make our way to the South Island. Yesterday we left Taupo and made our way to River Valley, a really nice place in the middle of nowhere with just the one hostel. The place was like it had been purpose built for a Cozens you hostel trip! On the way we stopped at Tangariro national park where a lot of Lord of the Rings had been filmed and I got a photo in front of Mount Doom. We also went for a dip in the waterfall where the Hobbits and Gollum were captured. After a 2 hour walk we got on the coach and made our way to the hostel where everyone from the bus stayed in a a 40 bed dorm, it was certainly an experience. In the evening the whole group just chilled and had a few drinks at the hostel. Today we woke up early and made are way to be briefed on our white water rafting trip, which was going to include a grade 5 rapid, scary! Once kitted out we got into 2 boats of 4 and made our way onto the river. It started of quite slowly so we could get used to the boat and the commands that are instructor Darren was shouting. It was only the calm before the storm though as we were mainly going through grade 3 and 4 rapids with a 5 thrown in for good measure. The grade 5 had a 2 metre drop, which was a barrel of laughs. Our instructor got thrown out and of the boat and had his head cruched between the rocks and our raft. It even put some holes in his Kevlar helmet. I had photos and videos from the whole trip but they are being sent home so i won't be able to put them up here. The white water rafting was certainly an experience and pretty scary in some parts. From River Valley we made the 4 hour drive to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. On first impression it seems a lot nicer than Auckland and I am looking forward to spending the weeken here. Happy Easter everyone!