As soon as i had arrived the previous day I asked my roommate what tours she was going on...so I tagged along!

First we went to Waimangu Volcanic Valley. The bus picked us up at 9am and it took 40 mins to get there, we were also with the 2 kiwi girls from the night before. It was a 3 hr walk though the volcanic valley were there was bubbling streams, steaming cliffs, volcanic craters and of course some strange wildlife, one being a black swan! I obviously took a lot of photos, it was nice to be somewhere that was out of this world and that had been there for years and years. We got picked up at 1pm then headed back to the hostel. I unfortunately had accumulated a fair bit of washing so I spent a couple of hours doing that!

Our second tour of the day was to the Mitai Maori Village. We got picked up at 6pm and we experienced what life was like in a traditional Maori village. The food, called hangi, is baked in a big pit and cooked for hours and hours, we were shown the finished version and i was very impressed. Lots of chicken, lamb, potatoes and sweet potatoes and they were looking very delectable!

Before we could eat we were treated to a 1 hour Maori show, lots of shouting and singing like a cat and the leader gave us an insight into the Maori culture. And then it was time to eat!! Luckily it was eat as much as you can, and after eating mainly cheap backpacker food for the past few weeks I was very excited with the prospect of eating a whole lamb and chicken! And there was pavlova and chocolate log for dessert....delicious!!!

After the feast, I could barely move but we were going on a tour of Rainbow Springs park at night time. We checked out loads of glowworms and saw the geckos, lizards, fish, swans and kiwi at night, it was really cool to be honest. After this it was 10:30pm, so as soon as I got back to the hostel I crawled into bed and went to sleep, the meat had paralysed me!