Leaving Whitianga, we stopped of at Karangahake Reserve (thank god i remember the names of every place ive been to and am not reduced to just reading them from a big Kiwi Experience book) for what was an amazing walk through a native bush-clad gorge en route to Rotorua. Our next stop was Matamata (home of Hobbiton, Lord of the Rings, way over my head) and just before we arrived at Rotorua we had the choice of a few adventure activities for the afternoon. Turning down the prospects of both Luging (rolling in a karty type thing down a downhill track with only a steering wheel and a break) as i had by now had enough of driving based activities to last me a lifetime and somethingelseicantremember, i decided to go for the one where you roll down a big grassy bank in a massive ball filled with water, more commonly called Zorbing. This is one of the silliest and most fun things I have done and the three of us inside the Zorb failed miserably at trying to stand up the whole way. It is quite difficult to explain how it works, hopefully the pictures do a better job. But back to Rotorua, often called the cultural capital of New Zealand, it is a really beautiful place and probably my favourite stop on the North Island. It actually means 'second lake' which describes the story of its founding. You can constantly see steam coming from under the streets and the place is full of boiling mud pools and geysers. Unfortunately the main drawback of Rotorua is that you have to put up with a near unbearable smell of burning sulphur, it actually stinks! The Maori name for it is 'evil smelling place', but it is an amazing city. It also acts as a showpiece for Maori culture and while there we went to a big Maori Arts and Crafts festival at Te Puia and more importantly a traditional Hangi concert and feast in the evening. Set in a traditional Maori village, I wasted no time in putting my hand up when our group had to nominate a 'chief' for the evening. This is of course a VERY important position, with particular importance ascribed to keeping a straight face as the Maori tribes perform the Haka in front of you on arrival. This is a none too easy task but i managewd to do it and after leading my tribe through the evening of song and dance, we all sat down to a 'traditional' Hangi feast. We were somewhat sceptical as to how traditional the meal was, being as it contained such delicacies as egg mayonaise and pavlova amongst other things, but either way it made a welcome break from super noodles and pasta. Later in our hostels 'Lava Bar' my irish friend Lisa would make disparaging remarks about my ability to last the pace on a night out, after my early return, remarks which i'm sure you'll agree lisa have come back to haunt you!

Next stop was Waitomo, a stunning place most famous for its limestone caves, full of dirty glow worms. It was here that we did black water rafting, which is basically a mix of caving, abseiling, tubing and climbing waterfalls in some of the most beautiful caves formed in the world. It was without doubt one of the best adventure type things ive done in New Zealand.