Hi, now in Taupo travelled down yesterday stopped on the way at Wai-o-tapu thermal wonderland, more of the same - bubbling pools etc. but a lot more colourful, some of the pool colours looked totally unatural, they had names like the Champagne pool, devil's bath and artists palette, really stunning. We also encountered Huka Falls on the way down which is where the Waikoto river suddenly gets squeezed through a small valley and there is an amazing waterfall, we lo...

Hi busy couple of days. We left Papamoa on Thursday and headed down to Rotorua, stopped at a place called Hell's Gate on the way, an area with lots of natural geothermal activity - boiling mud pools, lakes and steam coming out of the ground in random places - it was amazing but really smelly and the kids didn't really like it - too much walking involved! Then we drove to our campsite in Rotorua - I was in charge of deciding which one - such a responsibility! It's...

Hi I'm getting all confused now - I think some of the entries have got the wrong headings - I'm a bit addled by the sun!! Anyway last thing I wrote we were heading to Tauranga and Mount Mungahi (I think that's how you spell it!) We spent the morning on the beach, had lunch in the van then headed out. The journey was ok as we put the portable DVD on for the boys - I had to go up front halfway through as I was feeling queasy in the back! Arrived at the Mount and fo...

Spent the morning (Mon 26/1) on hot water beach, Al took the boys down while I sorted out the van - there's plenty of room don't know what we were worrying about!! I met them at the beach and we experienced the hot water effect. We didn't dig a huge hole but just by digging your feet down in the shallows you could feel boiling water - almost scalding!! The boys wallowed in a little stream then we went back to the van for lunch as it was very warm. Then headed out...

Hi, we are now officially travellers! We spent our last day in Auckland visiting the museum - a bit like the Natural History Museum, and we managed to catch a maori show where they told us all about their customs showed us their weapons and of course did the Haka! Thomas was fascinated and is working out how I can make him a maori costume when we get home! We then went up the Sky Tower which was amazing, it's higher than the Eiffel tower and the veiws were absolu...