Oh Darling, Lets Be Adventurers: The North Island

Rotorua really does stink... and no you do not get use to it!

After the North of Auckland we headed to the Coromandel Peninsula. We stayed in a little place called Hahei. While there, we went on a lovely walk to Cathedral Cove, which is literally a massive cove, its cool though and there where so many rocks and unique shaped Islands in the sea. It was a bit of a rainy day but it didn't bother us too much. We went to Hot Water Beach where we just dug a hole in the sand and suddenly had our own spa! It was amazing! I was unconvinced it would work as it was a freezing day but sometimes the water in the hole was too hot to even stand in! In fact I burnt my little toe. We had a great time there, especially because Nick did most of the digging!

We continues south to Rotorua, people often say it has a rotten egg smell... and they are correct!! It stinks! Its a pretty cool place though, a bit like Godzilla, smoke is coming up from the grates all the time. We went to the Red Wood Forest for a little walk, was good, the trees are huge!

In the evening we went to a Maori Hangi, this was awesome! They put on a show for us and taught us about the History of the Maori, which I found very interesting but Nick was unimpressed by their legends. They also taught us the Hakka! We had our food cooked in the underground oven and it was so nice, I don't think I have ever eaten so much meat followed by so much pudding! It was a bit of a Christmas day feeling! After this we had a night tour around rainbow springs. We went to see the Kiwi's but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any photos. They where so cute though, and so playful! They did the most mischievous things!

The next day we went to Wai-o-Tapu to the thermal wonderland and to see the Lade Knox Geyser. IT STANK!

We were lucky because it was a nice day so all the different colours in the water were enhanced and looked majestic. It's basically a park full of geothermal activity, so bubbling mud pools everywhere, brightly coloured lakes due to the Sulpher and minerals in them. An incredible experience.. must remember to hold your nose to appreciate the beauty though!

After Rotorua we headed to LakeTaupo and psyched ourselves up to do a sky dive! But the weather was too bad for the whole of our stay so we ended up staying firmly on the ground. We did go on a sailing trip to the Maori Carvings though, and that was fun. Although the carvings are only 32 years old. I thought they were suppose to be ancient!

We are in Wellington now, its very nice and so far we have been lucky with the weather! All the houses are on hills! Its reminds me a bit of Croatia and there is also a Hollywood style sign saying "All Blacks" they really like Rugby in NZ! Its our first day today, we had a walk around the Harbour and the Botanic Gardens, we plan to go to the museum tomorrow then up Mt Victoria.