Hello hello hello!!!

We have been busy busy busy since my last blog!! While in Auckland we went up the Sky Tower, the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, where we went up to about 220m. Some people were being stupid and doing a Sky Jump and jumping off the tower which was fun to watch! We also took a ferry over to Devonport where we had a very nice lunch and walk around. We visited Auckland zoo which was very cool indeed where we alsmost got to feed giraffes- except they walked off just as we get there. They didhn't like the look of us!!

We then moved on to Waitomo where they have lots of limestone caves, but their selling point is that they are full of glow worms. We walked through one and saw a few stalgtites and mites before getting on a boat (yes, underground people!) where they took us along a river flowing through the caves which all the glow worms lived above. THey then turned off the lights and low and behold there was a sky of sparkling stars above us. Very pretty indeed!!

We then went to Rotorua, a very smelly place as it has a lot of thermal activity due to the fact that it is on (or I think I should say "in") an active volcano. A lot of sulphur comes up with the steam giving it the smell of rotten eggs..... nice! We went to two thermal parks, where the thermal activity is very high. With boiling bubbling mud pools, errupting geysers- reaching 15m of hot water!!- and steaming holes in the ground which are coloured various colours due to the chemicals- meainly bright yellow, orange and green. (see pics) The second thermal park we went to also had a spa using the thermal activity, so we had a hot mud bath, then jumped in a very very cold shower, then went into a hot (over 30 degrees) pool of water- complete with sulphur smell! Very nice and relaxing though!! We even ahd a hot thermal pool at our hostel which we sat in one cold evening- never been so hot!! lol

Also, while at Rotorua we went to a Mauri village where they cooked us a meal in the ground of very nice roast chicken and lamb and lots of potatoes (you can imagine how I hated that! lol) they also put on a performance of their songs and dances including the Haka, and took us on a glow worm walk to their sacred spring.

Today we arrived in Taupo, which we are using as a rest stop before carrying on a 6 hour drive tomorrow down to Wellington. We have been lazy here, and only walked a bit along the lake.

Thank you all for your messages!! I hope you like the new pictures. Also have a look at Lucy's website, www.offexploring.com/lucy22 where there are lots more!!!

Hope you're all well, xxx