It's been a while since the last blog, mainly due to celebrating Christmas and the eating and drinking associated with it.

Christmas Day was spent in Taupo and, although it was hard being away from home, we both had a brilliant day. The hostel, Taupo Urban Retreat, put on a great Christmas dinner for everyone and we had masses of drink along with party games. Beth decided to FaceTime quite a few people late at night on Christmas Day and for that I can only apologise!!

On Boxing Day, our movements were severely restricted due to hangovers. We basically didn't do a lot; we went for a short walk along the side of the lake and then located a Pizza Hut for tea and headed back to the room with huge pizzas. It wasn't too different from a Boxing Day back home, just without the copious amounts of alcohol.

Friday was our last day in Taupo so we went to a sort of thermal stream which feeds into the river. The water in the stream was really hot so we alternated between that an the freezing cold water of the river. It was pretty weird how this water was so hot but that's New Zealand.

We left Taupo on Saturday for River Valley where we stayed in a lodge in the middle of nowhere which is used as a base for quite a few adventure sports. Us two being as wild as we are, we decided to go white water rafting as we have both always wanted to do this. So we donned our thermals and wet suits and headed down this river in what looked like a dingy which you would see on the beach. Luckily, it was made of sterner stuff. The first hour was pretty mellow and used as a bit of training for recognising the calls of the instructor and to prepare us for what lay ahead. The second hour was much bigger rapids which required quite a bit of skill to stay in the boat. Somehow we both managed to stay in the boat although Beth tried her best to make me fall out. We also stopped to jump into the river off a 7m high cliff. Beth had managed to be the first person to jump in but when our instructor counted her down she backed away and pushed me to the front. As I don't have a passion for heights, I wasn't particularly looking forward to it but felt the peer pressure to jump in. We both did it and survived but I definitely could not do a bungee!!

We left River Valley on Sunday to go to Wellington where we would be spending New Year. It was about four hours on the bus and it rained pretty much all of the way down to the capital city. We got into our hostel then scoped out the nearest supermarket for tea. We had decided to go to the quiz in the hostel so each had a bottle of wine to help save some cash in the bar before doing the quiz with Leah, Georgie and Jess from the kiwi bus. We had a great night although the quiz was a bit long and we didn't win. As we made it back to the room, my brother turned up to travel the with us for about 10 days. It was good to see someone from home in our drunken states.

On Monday, we all went to the Te Papa Museum which is the free national museum in Wellington. It was pretty interesting and we had a good walk around for a couple of hours. We then grabbed some dinner and had a walk around the shops in the city centre before Beth wanted to do another quiz we had seen advertised at an Irish bar. So we went there on Monday night and had a few drinks but nothing too heavy ahead of New Years Eve.

So it's now New Years Eve and we have been to see The Hobbit this morning. We've then been to get some alcohol for this evening before we go back to the Irish bar where a live band is playing tonight.

Hope everyone has a great New Year an see you in 2014.