Greetings from rotorua

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Hi everyone,

Greetings from Rotorua, which is in the middle of the North Island of NZ. This place is built around loads of thermal pools so there's mad holes in the ground that smell awful because of all the sulphur coming up from the middle of the earth. (geology rocks!) anyway, we've been super busy bunnies since we've been here (making up for having activities to do, as some of the places we've been have been really quiet). more of that in a minute.......

We left Auckland a few weeks ago and firstly stopped in Orewa which is abit like eastbourne with lots of old people that walk around really s-l-o-w-l-e-y, but we went to a place called Waiwera which is swimming pools but heated thermally, after that we headed to the Bay of Islands to a place called Russell & Paihia where the oldest Church & Pub in NZ were (in NZ hiostory that means about 1996!) just joking, the church was about 120 yrs old which is mad to think that ours go back so much further than that. From there we did a trip upto the furthest Northerly point of NZ called Cape Reinga, to get there you have to go along 90 mile beach, which is, you guessed it, a beach that's 90 miles long , 'apparantly' this beach is really dangerous and you are advised to only be on there a certain times of the day (according to high and low tide etc), i thought this was a bit of hype to get the tourists to go and have a look at the 'most dangerous beach in NZ' but no, surely enough we were travelling along in a 4x4 and we saw a camper van that had sunk it's tires in and was being washed out to sea with two upset looking french people rushing pots, pans and bedding to the sand dunes higher up the beach.

After this we tried sand boarding where you have to run up a sand dune (the most torturous excercise i've ever done in my whole life (stew nearly had a heart attack and at one point i feared for his life), the fun's all over in about 2 seconds but it was fun while it lasted. after that stew sampled some fish and chips from the oldest chippy in NZ (est 1999!) he was feeling better by that point.

On the way back down we stopped at a bird sanctuary (not my sort of thing but it had been recommended) and we got to see and touch a 12 day old kiwi bird!!! for those of you that don't really appreciate this, they are the rarest bird in NZ and it's really unlikely that you'll see one in you're lifetime.

Still heading south we stopped at Hahei, which it famous (in NZ) for hot water beach, we dug holes in the sand and burned our bums in the hot water, it's absolutely mad.

So, that brings us back to Rotorua, iain- you will be proud to hear that i tried something called Zorbing (you guys should google it, and you will be impressed!) you get driven up a really steep hill, thrown in a giant hamster ball and told to walk slowley forwards, it was the most bizarre experience of my life. we've also tried Luging, which is like a toboggan down a mountain. after that we thought we'd have abit of pampering so we went to McDonalds (eeeeeek!!!!!!) and then onto the Polynesian Spa which again is all themrally heated.

That's enough from us now, send gossip and stories from back home, whats happening in the news over there.

we love you, poppy and stew

lucy please send wedding pix!!!!!

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