Acapulco Motel Rotorua

... couldn't find them so we went for a walk to Huka Falls - a huge waterfall ten metres deep forced through a narrow crevice. They have built a dam which supplies NZ with fifteen percent of their energy, that's a pretty powerful waterfall. We walked back past some natural hot springs where people were relaxing in the pools right next to the river. Not long in Taupo so we jumped in the car and drove to Rotorua which is the main tourist ...

... me - that was the scariest part! And then, once the other 4 girls had jumped, it was Luke's turn. And after I saw him tumble out of the plane and plummet to the ground... it was my turn! When you get to the part where you have to hang your legs out of the plane, you think - oh god, this is really gonna happen now! and thank god you have someone strapped to you who basically throws you out of the plane, otherwise I don't think I could have done it ...

As pig flu arrives in teh bay of plenty, i've departed ( this isn't the reason i've left, i'm just providing you with piece of trivia). <br><br>After a slightly later than planned last night in Tauranga i've managed to get up, get the bags on my bike,check out and with only a slight wobble set off into a lovely sunny morning remarkably only a tiny 25mins later than ...

... down I realise I should've taken Iain's advice on adjusting the harness to acceptable levels of comfort - particularly the fellas. 10m down and the harness and the friction and squeeze result in a rather uncomfortable gonad crunching experience. And still 90m to go. I decide to start letting the rope through a little faster. Iain is trying to stop and explain various cavey things - I think I'll carry on thanks for I can feel two round things in ...

... things were certainly cozy we made it work. Most of the campsites where we stayed had clean and nicely appointed bathrooms/showers. Also, we did leverage their kitchens a few times as well. For me (Allison), my favorite portion of the trip was from our arrival on ...

... our stops on the way to Rotorua was a town now called Hobbiton because it's where the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed. We posed in front of the sign and Smeigal statue because it's more or less compulsory. But it was a strange situation because the middle of town is more or less a shopping mall. Thoughts on American culture: These last several days have been really weird because I have met one other American ...

... to house the family. He was helping build everything. What struck me as so interesting about Joey was his presence. The man was about half a foor (100 Cm) taller than me but felt like he was double the size of me. It came down to the fact that he was just the nicest, strongest person I ever met. You could tell he was just a hairs away from defending anyone as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders. He took everything like it ...

... then went through the process of trying to cancel the first two charges but with no luck. Anyway our flight was ready now so I left Diana trying to cancel the first two charges and went out to the Helicopter. After having our photo taken we were off on our flight out to the White Volcano, the only live volcano in New Zealand. We flew out over the lake and then on over the Pacific Ocean, the volcano was about 50Km off shore. You can see were the last ...

... the caves...or you can go Black Water Rafting. Black Water Rafting is basically caving except you have a full body thick wet suit on and a very small inner tube. Since the caves we are entering have water running through them, we basically float/raft through the caves going over several waterfalls and slides. It was a blast. Sorry I did not take any pictures of the glow worms or in the cave because I didn't have a waterproof camera. Once we exited the ...

... a few liters of water and get that authentic feeling I would like to call "the cat in the washing machine". Great fun, lotsa screams and limbs all over the place. At the end you flop out of a narrow opening with a gush of water sloshing out after you like your own birth relived. Great fun! <br> We also met two lovely German travellers in Rotorua, one of whom, Regine, was so lovely, I couldn't help myself going out with her and selling her our car. It's great to ...