We arrived in Rotorua and (thanks to Mistress Love's wonderous advice) we were prepared for a rotten egg smell that is apparently the perfect accompaniment to thermal activity which the area is famous for. We got dropped off at some mud pools and my lord did they pong!! Luckily, when we actually got into the town of Rotorua the smell wasnt constant and it was actually ok! Anywho, Rotorua is one of the first places that we have been to recently that properly...

Right!! After losing all of our fishy family at random places along the way, we all agreed to meet up for Kate's last night in New Zealand *sobsob*. ANywho, this basically means that we were DEAD excited to get there! Whoopwhoop! We have heard baaaaaaaaaaaad things about Auckland which made us slightly worried, Wellington was supposed to be much nicer than Auckland but we hated it! So yes....we had the fear. Anywho, we arrived in Auckland and actually reall...

Arrived in Lake Taupo this morning after a very pretty trip on the coach (what a big surprise!!) and .... there is a big lake there....and thats about that!! We spent a few days just sitting in our jail cell room - there was no window and was boiling hot but we rarely left it!! Infact, one of the maintenance men kept laughing at us for not going outside, he kept telling us about this pretty thing called a lake that lives in the outside world, but we didnt listen ...

Rafting again rafting again!!! Ok so we might be slightly addicted....! We got dropped off at a random little town called....urm....Taihape - but which I am convinced is called Happy Clappy....but anyway! We got collected by the lodge people and taken to River Valley which is "nestled" (seems like a good word for it!) at the bottom of a flat top mountain right next to the river. It was such a cute little place, nothing around for miles and miles except...

Ok first things first....some things that I failed to remember in my last entries and which I have been beaten for not mentioning.... When we were doing the seal swim in Kaikoura we swam through hundreds of Jellyfish (the man assured us they were harmless but we still kept trying to flap them away!) and Emma dearest conquered the deep and found herself a wee octopus. RANK! But both Em and I were very brave and held it - the bloke wouldnt let me not but I held it...