Its been a busy week since I last got on the Internet! From Tauranga we decided to have a look at Rotorua, where the earths crust is naturally a lot thinner than other places, so there is a lot of geothermal activity, and inevitably that lovely eggy smell! ( Vicki you will know what I mean!) Yo uwere sposed to get used to it after a bit, but believe me it STINKS!!

We had a wander around all the smelly mud pools where the steam was coming through, and had a dip in the local hot pools outside. Your head gets freezing in the wind but the rest of your body is boiling away. The locals call it the Lobster Pools, as you come out looking like one!! We just stayed for one night here, a lot of the attractions were closed, or you had to pay a fortune to see the geysers, so we decided to carry on to Lake Taupo, further south.

This was a really gorgeous place, with a huge lake in an old volcano crater. You could also see some snowy mountains in the distance, on the other side of the lake. We were lucky and could park overnight by the lake, with some amazing views to wake upto! The little town was very cute, so we spent a couple of days having a rest here, as we were on our way to do some SKIING hooray!!

We just about made it up Mount Ruapehu ( Mount doom in the Lord of the rings films) in our trusty old van, where it gradually got colder and colder, until we hit the snow line. The area we hit first (Whakapapa) looked a bit more advanced than we were used to, so we headed around the mountain a bit to Turoa. The gear hire and lift passes were really cheap ( about 30 quid a day) and so we got some new bruises whizzing down the piste! Mark has improved loads, and is ‘linking his turns’ as they say! I managed to fall over only twice, and conquered my fear of the swingy chair lifts so it was a success all round!Really bad weather came in so we had to cut the skiing short, but we will definately be going back, as they have snow until October there.

We were pretty sore afterwards and have just arrived in Hawkes bay ( currently in Napier, the world’s Art Deco centre) which seems really pretty, and the house prices aren’t too bad either, so we will be exploring the region – namely the vinyards that are all over the place!! I have updated the pics here but have to go and check on my washing now, before someone pinches it!!

Hope you are all well, love

Gill and Mark

xox