Hey guys, How you going?! Haha

So... Monday 16/08 started at 7am in the belief there would be a free breakfast waiting for us after the Argentinian girls kept us up all night!!!! doh. There was no free breakfast however, in moaning about the Argentinians we made friends with a couple of English girls - Dale and Kate - who just so happened to be catching the same bus as us!!! Wooo so very exciting not to mention a relief as we couldn't find the bus stop on Sunday so were a little worried.

Duncan the bus driver picked us up at 8.30am and the fun begins....
1st stop, still in Auckland, was at the top of Mount Eden, an extinct volcanic cone, very impressive but unfortunately you'll have to take our word for it as in the photos it looks like a meadow!!!! Haha. We only stayed there for about 15 minutes before heading off to Thames for a supermarket shop and lunch - funny pic of this we thought as there was this beautiful landscape of hills and mountains and then in front of it was KFC and a supermarket etc - they just didn't seem to fit together!! Anyway, getting sidetracked, we then stopped at a place called Cathedral Cove where I (Deb) had put my name down for sea kayaking but that was cancelled due to the weather! DOH! It was a nice day but the sea was too choppy apparently so we walked down to the cove instead and had a bit of a play in the sea. There was also a massive rock in the shape of a shark fin! Oooo
We then carried on to Whitianga (think that's how you spell it!!), pronounced Fitianga, or mercury bay as it's also known where we stayed in a family run hostel and had spaghetti bolognaise, mmmm (wierdly though before dinner, me, Luc, Kate and Dale were playing cards and my top lip starting swelling much to their amusement! Think I got bitten or something Lol) and then went to 'The Lost Spring', an outdoor spa thing which was very lovely and sociable. The room was a little hut we shared with Dale and Kate.

7.30am pick up today (Tues 17/02) .... 1st stop at Karangahake Gorge where there's an old goldmine with a walkway so we went through that and over a couple of rickerty bridges with warnings of 'no more than 10 people at a time', of course about 30 of us walked over it together!!! Haha Lots of nice views and a gazillion steps!!! - getting use out of our walking shoes!
Next stop was Matamata where we got ripped for our pronounciation of 'Rotorua'!!! lol This is also the town where the Lord of the Rings filmed scenes of Hobbiton so we got a couple of cheesey photos there aswell before stopping for the evening in Rotorua.
Tonight we're going to a Maori cultural evening where lots of food is provided and they tell you about the history and put on a bit of a show I think - more to follow on that. and we've decided to stay an extra night here to do white water rafting tomorrow!!! Cannot wait!!
This town is on quite an active site (I think that's what Duncan the driver said) so there's a rotten egg smell constantly from the sulphur and random bits of land are steaming!!! Really wierd. We looked round a park where there are fences round all these bubbling, steaming mud pits and pools!

Loving the Kiwi experience so far, bit like a school trip really, it's so jam packed as you can probably tell from the first day and a half but it's great and we're meeting lots of people.

Lots of Love

Deb and Lu

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