Rotorua and more

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Hello everyone,

Well two and a half weeks in and we are still having loads of fun and amazingly haven't argued once!!!! From Auckland we headed North to the Bay of Islands. It was gorgeous and to make the most of it we went out on a giant speed boat which shot around between all the islands. Needless to say I screamed like a girl and Mark took it all in his stride. The scenery is alot like Scotland but more tropical with palm trees and other weird and wonderful plants. We stayed in Paihia for a couple of nights. One of the days we were there Mark had a big plan to go and see this amazing waterfall so we headed off early in the car expecting to get there two hours later. We finally reached our destination after a succesion of rally worthy twists and turns only to discover the falls were in a completely different place which was only 10km north of where we were staying. In short we did about a 4 hour round trip to see them. They were lovely but I am not sure they were worth that long a drive!!!!

Now we are down in the middle of the North Island in Rotorua. It is a really stunning town set on a lake. There is lots of geothermal activitiy here so we spent this morning walking around a park with geysers and mud pools which stank of sulpher - it was much better than I am making it sound. Then we headed up to the top of Rotorua on a cable car. The views were fab. While we were up there we donned crash helmets (mine didn't fit, I told Mark it's cause my brain is so big) and we went down the mountain on race tracks designed for luges( gokarts or old fashioned boggies). It was hilarious and as usual Mark was like Nigel Mansell.

Well thats all for now folks, oh except to say that the weather is amazing. We spend our afternoons wandering around in shorts and t-shirt, dropping in for a few light refreshments and discuss what adventures we will have the next day. Anyone been sick yet??????

Take care and as the Kiwis say "Sweet as!"

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