thermal pools, shattered glass and touching noses

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This week has been eventful to say the least! After staying the night at a woderful site right on the beach we headed for lake taupo where we booked our speedboat experience to hucka falls. This meant wearing a waterproof "lambing gown" and life jacket and speeding along the water at 60k an hour, which doesn't sound much but when you are skimming rockfaces with inches to spare or doing one of many 360 turns around various obstacles including a tree in the middle of the river it was pretty amazing and very wet!!!
The next day we headed for Rhotorua where we planned to enjoy a maouri evening including a proper haka, a meal cooked underground (a hangi) and a wonderful insight into the maouri culture, however we were waylaid by the lure of an evening stay at wiakite thermal springs resort, where we bathed by moonlight in temps of 40 degrees in infinity pools and saw where the water originated from the ground at nearly 100 degrees!!! It was truely amazing!

Unfortunately our stay resulted in a cracked side window from a stray stone flicked up from a lawn mower which meant a 2 night stay in rhotorua instead, whilst it was repaired, however it did mean that we enjoyed an awesome maouri evening and also cycled to Te Puia to see fantastic bubbling mud pools and thermal geysers.

We then headed to auckland for the game against the scots and thats all i'm saying about that!!

We are now on the coromandal penninsular having enjoyed a beautiful sunny warm day exploring the coastline in our walking boots. With 3 days left of the new zealand leg of our trip we are gearing up, or should that be down, for our relaxing few days in fiji. See you all soon x x x

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