Today was a bit of a lazy day, I spent the morning packing and checking out of my Auckland hostel, said my goodbyes, then headed to the bus station at 12pm. The bus only took 4 and a half hrs which is pretty good compared to most of the bus journeys I've done, and it only took about 10 minutes to walk to the hostel. The man at the hostel was very friendly and talkative, which is always a bonus! I went up to my room and got chatting to an Aussie girl who said we should go out for drinks and see the town...how could I say No?!

Turns out that there are a lot of Maori gangs in Rotorua so it's better to go out in groups at night, luckily there were 2 kiwi girls and 2 swiss guys who wanted to go out as well. So, we headed out, holding our noses on the way...due to the sulphuric emissions in the air it gives the place a 'rotton eggs' smell! Had a couple of pints of cider at the Pig & Whistle, very friendly bar manager who gave us 2 free shots of what seemed like strawberry milkshake! We then headed to Lava Bar, which is owned by Base backpackers as we thought that would be more busy....err no! After having another pint and a vodka shot we headed back. Unfortunately the girls were not big pint drinkers and were pretty drunk and were surprised that I wasn't..they clearly didn't know me! Anyways so an earlyish night to bed, well before midnight!!