Napier - (27th Jan - 24th Feb) Ignore the pictures on the side for now, It's not the actual places!

So after spending the day in Taupo, we drove down to Napia in the morning to spend the next few weeks fruit picking! The prison scared the hell out of me at first. Stuck right on top of a mountain you don't see the prison until you travel up a windy hill, then.. you see it. Big massive stone prison walls and a massive wooden door that just says "Please ring the bell." You wait for a minute then hear the echoing sound of the door bolts unlocking. I expected to see Herman the Monster open the door but it was actually a nice lady with a welcoming smile. Inside, the prison still has all its original features. All the old cells are still there, (you can spend a night in one of these but i'll give that a miss) they still have the hanging yard (including the rope!) and the kitchen is the old Death Row waiting room! Thank god that you don't actually stay by these rooms.

We stay in the old Uniform Room (all the rooms are still called what they were back in the day) which is out of the main block where the cells are. Some of the old cells are converted into rooms but there is no chance I'd even agree to stay in those rooms. There are a few ghosts stories that do the rounds and one of the cells is said to be haunted. They do daily tours around the prison which we will probably do. Not until I leave though, I don't want to know any stories until I know I won't sleep another night there. I'm used to it now, but after another few weeks here i'll be ready to go somwhere else.

Napia itself is lovely. We have a beach 5 mins walk from the prison and also an outdoor swimming pool thats just down the road too. Not to forget the outdoor jacuzzi's! I'll get pictures on soon cause I've got loads to put on. I've had to set up a different site to put these on as I've been having loads of trouble putting them on here. When I've done this I'll put the details on the home page of where to find them.

We've been fruit picking for two weeks now, going to do this for another two weeks then head off somewhere else. It's hard work but atleast it's outside in the sun and no-one really bothers you. We get paid on the amount of fruit we pick. However, our first two weeks was terrible. The man we worked for didn't have any fruit that was ripe at all. He kept promising we would have some to pick but we could see it was going to happen. So, we've got a job with another orchard starting on Monday were there is actually some fruit to pick. So next week should be alot better.

Think thats all for now,

Oh hang on. Kate just reminded me that we went to see a Dolphin show at Marineland. This is also just down the road. The dolphin, we're told, is 37 years old. Not so sure about this myself. Dolphins are only said to live to about 15 years. Surely this must be the oldest dolphin in the world then! It might be true. The place does have pedigree, after all the queen has been there to visit! For 20 English you can have a private swim with this dolphin. It's fair to say that i'll be doing this before I leave. Really can't wait for that.

Tuesday (30th Jan) was also a bank holiday. It's called Waiatngi Day and it's a celebration of New Zealand signing a treaty with England, that guaranteed New Zealand the help of our armies to stop other countries invading New Zealand. And is apparantly why New Zealand is the place it is today. I'm not so sure of the exact events of this treaty, I might Google it. We went to the local park for this day, we heard you could go on one of the rowing boats that the natives arrived into New Zealand on. Think they are called the Waka. You could, and we did. That was fun. Got pics of this too. We also watched a performance of the Haka. The rugby dance. I like this.