Why does it always rain on me?!

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We have finally gotten over our jet lag enough to make the effort to put pics up and do another blog!

Being in New Zealand is just like being in a cheaper version of the UK! (Adrienne's Dad, diesel here costs 102.9 dollars per litre which is like 40p!) Its a shock to the system though after Hawaii, cos it is rainy and cold - kind of feels like Christmas!

We spent about 3 days sleeping in Auckland and not doing much else! We bought Auckland Superpases to get into their main attractions. The Sky Tower was ok, had a nice view of the city, but we paid the extra to go to their sky deck thingy (which is higher up than the main observation point) and was total waste of money cos view was exactly the same, except thing were slightly smaller! Am glad we didnt didnt waste our money on the higher level of the empire state building!

On the second day we went to Kelly Tarltons Underwater World. There were hundreds of really cute penguins there, as well as giant stringrays and some other fish. It was meant to be a full day out but only took up 2 hours, and it was raining too much to do anything after so we just went back to the hostel and slept some more!

We also went to Rainbows End, Aucklands theme park, but it rained all day, the rides according to Paul were lame and according to Adrienne were scary and horrible, so the most fun we had all day was causing a massive pile up in the dodgems! The best thing we did from our superpass was walk to the summit of a volcanic island - it was quite a clear day so we got really good views, but was muddy all the way up so we dont think they are going to let us into Australia now! Paul is quite glad the volcano did not erupt 😊

We are in Rotorua now and it smells worse than LA, though this time it is of rotten eggs instead of smog! ( Paul identified this as the element sulphur - good practice for the physics teaching!) It has rained almost constantly since we have been here, so much so that Paul has had to go and buy a mac in a bag as my umbrella is not big enough for the both of us!

We went to a maori thermal village today, and went to a cultural show where they sang loads of traditional songs and did the haka! Paul even got to join in when they were doing the hokey kokey in their language, though think he would rather have had them teach him the haka! We also got a guided tour where they showed us some boiling pools of mud and water, and we got to see some geysers erupt which was quite cool.

We are going back to Auckland tomorrow, then on to Australia in 2 days - can't wait!

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Photos

the smile of a killer
thats pauls title!

Giant Stingray
Adrienne's Title

Comments

[dad]

mac in a bag
Anyone wearing a mac in a bag has got to be worth a picture! I am still fascinated with the water running away down a plughole-what's the answer? Rothbury's is definitely anti-clockwise so I would predict that in NZ it runs away clockwise (unless the earth's magnetic field changes polarity which it occasionally does). Smell the flowers throughout your trip have a look down your plughole and recall GCSE science! love dad

[Mic and nat]

What is the smile of a killer? It looks like a fuzzy blob with a smile!

[Drie and Paul]

its a stingrays underside and mouth!

[Drie and Paul]

Not sure on the plughole, but will check it out! Tried to check when flushing the toilet, but all goes down in one mass so cant tell which way direction the water runs away lol! Will try to sneak a pic of paul wearing his mac, though better pic would probs be of him carrying it attached to his jeans lol!