People certainly weren't lying when they told us that Rotorua didn't smell great. In certain parts it really does smell pretty bad as the whole city is built over a crater and many geothermal parks surround it which we saw first hand. The evening we got there we were lucky to come across a free BBQ with any beer purchased, which we took full advantage of after our scout of the town earlier that day. The night was a pretty tame one although we did compete in the horizontal bungee challenge which involved being strapped to a bungy rope and running as far as we could against it. The next day was in my opinion the best of the trip yet, starting in the morning with our 15,000ft skydive back in Taupo. Concerned about the weather we checked the skies every 5 minutes on our way there only to receive perfect clear skies with a bit of cloud to dive through. It was the most mental experience of my life which I would recommend to anyone stupid enough to do it. I've put the pictures up and am working on getting the videos on, which are very good, but it's proving difficult. After finally losing the adrenaline rush a few hours later our appetite returned, luckily for us we were booked onto the Maori experience that night which meant being treated to the ways of the Maori tribe of Tamaki and with it a Hangi feast. During the experience we were selected along with three other lads to learn the New Zealand Haka in front of the big crowd which was very entertaining and a good skill to now have. Deserving of a good amount of food we got more than we could have imagined, piles and piles of every kind of meat: beef, chicken, fish and pork along with every vegetable and sauces you can think of that were replaced each time a tray became empty. We had never been so full and we were thoroughly entertained and satisfied by the whole experience. We decided to venture to the bar again when we were back just to see what was going on only to come across a gladiator style joust arena which involved standing on a podium, padding up and trying to knock the other person off with your club. I came out a strong winner against Charlie but I'll put that down to the full stomach he had after the Hangi feast which handicapped him. The next morning we had no time for a lie in as we were taken to Kaitiaki for our white water rafting trip which was hard work but a lot of fun as we messed around when the river was flat in certain parts, even tipping the entire boat over which wasn't really supposed to happen. Shattered from the last few days we chilled for the afternoon but later that evening decided it would be rude not to attend the weekly wet t-shirt competition to share our wisdom and thoughts on the sporting event. The next and our last day in Rotorua we also were not allowed a lie in as we went out to an adrenalin theme park which had us pulled up to 50 metres in the air and dropped in a tandem bag to swing and spin over the park. Also at the park was a freefall experience as we floated over a wind tunnel as if we were skydiving as well as a race track in which we were suspended in little plastic boxes with pedals in them as we raced around a track, which I did come out as victorious again. That afternoon we made our way on foot a couple miles to the Rotorua Skyline and Luge track, similar to the one in Queenstown, to get an aerial view of the city and to race on the luge track as we did in Queenstown. Also as in Queenstown I came out as winner of this challenge as well which we reflected over with a couple bottles of the local ale and soaked up the sun on the top of the mountain. Finishing our time in Rotorua we had one last walk around before heading back to the hostel and it's bar for one last drink or two or three before we left for Auckland, our last stop before Charlie leaves to go home. On our way to Auckland we stopped in the town of Matamata (Hobbiton) the place where the Shire and hobbits were filmed in the Lord of the Rings films which was decent.