Friday 13th AprilWe drove to Tauranga last night and stayed with Dave and Jenny Parry. Simon used to go to school with their son. Kate is also here and is coming round for dinner tonight. I'm so excited to see her.Dave and Jenny kindly offer us their house for the evening and leave us to it. So it's really funny when Kate arrives bringing her in and treating it like it was ours. Hee hee. There are stunning views out towards Mount Maunganui and at night it...

Thursday 12th April Simon and drove to Waitomo yesterday and this morning we head off in search of glow worms. They turn out to be quite an ugly looking larvae thing in the light with lots of sticky strands hanging off their bodies in order to catch flies. And if you've ever wondered how they create their light, it's made from a chemical reaction between their poo and two other chemicals. Nice! We get in a boat and float gently down into a cave and whe...

Monday 9th April The weather is still beautiful even though it's Autumn and we go to Otawawarei beach for the day. Simon used to come here with his parents when he was young so he loves it. We sunbathe and swim in the sea. The beach itself is lovely, very quite and secluded and the walk around the bluff is beautiful. Tuesday 10th April Today is one of the highlights of our trip - we go to visit White Island which is an active volcano just off the coast fr...

Saturday 7th AprilWe arrived in Rotorua yesterday and nothing prepared me for the smell. Ok - so we'd been to a geo-thermal park and the smell was very bad there of rotten eggs from all the sulphur and acid in the air. But I hadn't expected it in the middle of the town. Peeeoooooh! Stinky stinky very stinky!We go to the Maori village in the evening where they formally welcome us in by shouting and waving large sticks at us! Pretty scary stuff. They're...

Friday 6th April - Easter Good FridayWe drive to Orakei Korako which is thermal park site. We wander through bubbling hot springs and scarpa's that look like a planet's surface with an amazing array of colours. There are geysers with boiling water bubbling out of them and a stunning geothermal cave. The water in the cave's pool will clean your jewellery if you leave it in there for 5 minutes! We wander past mud pools that plop and hiss - it's like...