Last three days were spent travelling down from Auckland to Wellington. Decided to change bus companies and this time travelled with Magic buses.

Stopped off at Waitomo where they have black water rafting in caves filled with Glow Worms. It was pretty good, did a bit of crawling through pitch black caves getting through 2 foot holes in the rock...was a bit of a squeeze!! We then settled into inner tubes which kept us afloat as we made our way through the water filled caves taking in the thousands of glow worms lighting up the 'sky'.

After Waitomo we headed on to Rotorua, in the Bay of Plenty, which is famous for its Geothermal activity. The place has Geysers, hot pools, boiling mud baths etc. It also stinks of sulpher, really bad egg small all day long! I am used to it, but it could put others off their food!! Some of the scenery was like from another planet, mub bubbling up through sulpher stained rocks. It was fascinating to see. In the evening a group of us went to a 'traditional' Mauri night. It was actually really good. They greeted us with a war dance, challenging us, to which we had to respond. We then chatted to many of the local Mauries and they put on a show of Mauri dance, music and customs. After this we ate a lovely meal cooked in the traditional Mauri earth ovens. We all had a great time and a sing song on the bus home rounded off a good night.

Next day we headed down to lake Taupo where I was planning to do a skydive. Unfortunately the weather was horrible so we did not have much chance to do anything but mooch around the town. In the evening we had a few beers and a group of us headed to the flicks as the weather was good for nothing else. Had a good laugh though and met some really nice landaners Shona and Amy. Will be spending the next few days with this group so it should be good fun.