On Monday, with the O'Ds back at school/uni, we went to Rotorua museum (very cultural!). We somehow ended up in a twenty minute French simulation film and couldn't leave once it had started - only us. We saw the old baths (it took us 40 minutes to realise we were in an old bath house) and went underground to see the old mud pools. Jess got the shock of her life when there was a model of a man in one of the baths haha.

That night, continuing with the cultural day, we went to a night at the Maori village which included a tour of the village, singing and dancing and most importantly, a huge all you can eat buffet mmm. We managed to get a discount because Chris knew one of the girls that worked there so we pretended to be her Maori cousins for the evening! The tour began with a Maori warrior deciding if we were friend or foe and we got to experience the original New Zealand hakka which was really scary. We were then allowed to enter the village and were shown around different stations involving carving, tattooing, weaving, dancing and old Maori games. Jess was chosen to participate in one of the games, which of course she won. Before the concert, we were shown our food which had been cooked underground in a hongi, with the geothermal energy. Lucy was very disappointed when it wasn't time to eat the food yet. We got front row seats for the concert where they performed traditional songs and dances as well as the hakka again. Then it was dinner time!!!!!! We piled our plates high with lamb, chicken, fish, potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, carrots and gravy - much better than the pasta we've had almost every night! After 3 plates full, and one of the Maoris commenting on how the 'Manchester girls' were eating all the food, it was time for dessert. We ate spotted d*** with custard, pavlova, peaches and cream. Eventually, we were so full we couldn't eat any more and Lucy had pains in her heart from eating too much. We listened to some more traditional songs as well as a bit of Elvis Presley and 'you are my sunshine' before we got the coach back into town. On the coach, everyone from each country had to sing a song from that country. We thought there would be loads of English so it would be fine, but we were the only ones so we did a beautiful rendition of 'everywhere we go....' - it was such a good night!

The next morning we said our goodbyes to the O'Ds and headed southwards to Taupo. We stopped at the geysers and hot pools on our way. Our guide boiled some eggs in one of the hot pools which we got to eat, even after our huge cooked breakfast that morning. The geysers were amazing, firing boiling water up to 20m in the air! We also got to see some Kiwi birds, which are almost extinct.

As the weather was beautiful, this meant Lucy could do her skydive when we arrived in Taupo. Our limo picked us up 10 minutes after arriving (yes, a limo!) and took us to the airport. The instructor Lucy was jumping with made her even more nervous, reading the parachute danger warning out as he harnessed her up. They forgot to show us the safety video before we got on the plane but said it was fine because nothing would go wrong. Obviously, Lucy was first out the plane so was sat right near the door. She thought they were almost high enough but when she looked at the altitude dial it only said 2000ft and she was going 12,000! As soon as the door opened she was straight out, screaming the whole way down and scaring everyone else still in the plane. Jess watched from the bottom, trying to take photos and wondering which parachute was Lucy, then she heard 'JESSSSSSSSSSSS!' and knew that was Luce! She had survived, the most amazing five minutes of her life, with beautiful views over Lake Taupo and the mountains. She elegantly landed on her bum with legs like jelly. AMAZING!

That night we headed out to the pub quiz at the local Irish bar, taking with us our room mate, Alan. Alan turned out to be the weirdest guy we have ever met, making the strangest comments. We made a team with some of the guys from the skydiving (ditching Alan) and managed to come a respectable last place!

Today, we decided to hire a tandem bike to cycle round the lake as it's such a beautiful day. Singapore can fit inside Lake Taupo so its a pretty big lake. After a practice on the grass, we set off in completely the wrong direction, spending half and hour trying to get out of a housing estate. We finally found the right path and were suprisingly good at it although the 'cyclists give way to pedestrians' signs were not adhered to! We got a few strange looks, avoiding crawling toddlers, children on bikes and even a grandad on his scooter stuck on a grass verge! We attempted to swap over at one point, Jess at the front, but failed very miserably because Jess was too small to reach the pedals - very fun day!

We head to River Valley tomorrow and are pretty sure its just the two of us on the Kiwi bus, but we are very pleased to get away from Alan who woke up laughing at nothing this morning!

J&L x