Kia-Ora!

Well, we have made it to the most laid-back capital city on this earth...Wellington! After a tantalisingly boring day on a bus, with the worlds most irritating driver, that insisted on saying 'sweet as' after even the most in appropriate sentence ('I nearly hit that truck...sweet asssssss!') we were herded into another lovely hostel called 'Downtown Backpackers'. Actually, its a lot nicer than it sounds. It has clean showers and a nice communal area, although we have already bed wars with another guy, that just picked my bed, although it was clearly 'claimed' with my bag on it! cheeky!

Since last coming on here we have done Roturua - Wai-o-tapu - Huka Falls - Taupo -Tongariro - Wellington, all in about 3 days..so it has been a bit mental.

Roturua was lovely, if not a bit smelly (I dont know if Tom mentioned?!), It is a highly active volcanic area with hot springs and geysers all over the place. Our hostel backed on to a Kaikora, a park with huge smelly hot springs in it, and we were warned not to walk through there inebriated as it wouldnt be the first time someone fell in (they are very hot). Whilst there we went up the sky line, which gave us a lovely view of lake Rotorua, and went Luging, which is like a go cart but closer on the ground. I was co-erced into doing it, and really enjoyed it. However I could only go once as blisters had formed where I spent so much time on the breaks! Unfortunately Zorbing was out of the question as it was a bit of a miserable day, so we are going to save that for another day, probably Queenstown.

On a side note, If anyone goes to Roturua go eat at the 'Fat Dog', its a random little cafe, full of odd furniture that does that most amazing nachos!

Anyway, from here we moved on to Wai-o-tapu, which is a famous collection of colourful thermal pools (in shades of lime and champagne!) and also the 'Lady Knox Geyser. This geyser is a little like 'Old Faithful Geyser' in America, and goes off at 10:15am every single day, except that it also allows for daylight saving. Reason being that it only goes off when the guide put soap powder down the hole (which incidently they only do at 10:15 everyday!). Apparently this Geyser was found when local women were washing their clothes on the Geyser and got a bit of a shock!

From here we did a quick trip to 'Rock & Ropes' where Tom threw himself off a death swing and a trapeze (photo's to come), and moved on to the beautiful Huka Falls (again photo's to come!).

We came to Taupo, which is a small town based on the outskirts of Lake Taupo near the Tongariro national park and the desert roads. Taupo itself was pretty non-descript but its surroundings were stunning, being surrounded by mountains. We went from here for a visit to Mount Tongariro and Mount Ngauruhoe, the later also known as 'Mount Doom' for Lord of the Rings buffs. Of course, Tom was in his absolute element here and has been chewing my ear of about the formation of Volcanoes and lakes and general geography stuff! Personally, I have just been taking photos, and think it all looks rather nice! We spent Valentines day here, but due to the absolute lack of things to do in Taupo itself, we ended up spending the evening eating a pizza and watching Saw 1 on my MP3 player, very romantic!

So on from there today we made the mammoth journey down to Wellington, which takes me back to the start! It seems nice here, we are going to head out into the city this evening so I will fill you in at a later date.

I hope you are all well, thanks for your messages. Just a couple of things; Matt and Hanna you are absolutely going to love it here! Chris, Tom is wearing the shirt for all sporting occasions, dont you worry! and Mum, Zorbing is where you got down a hill in a big rubber ball!

Miss you lots, take care,

Liz and Tom xxx