Baileys Motel Whitianga

... br>When we got to Mercury Bay, guess what? It was raining. Shock horror. We couldn't go for a walk or anything, so we HAD to go to these geothermal hot pools that had been made into a spa, complete with man made caves etc. It's a hard life...we stayed there for waaay longer than we were supposed to, meaning that we looked like prunes by the time we got out.

<br>After leaving Rotorua we went to Taupo. We stopped at Hukka Falls which are a set of waterfalls on the Waikato river that drains lake Taupo. It's made just watching the water because it flows so fast, 220, 000 litres per second! That's an olympic swimming pools in under thirteen seconds!<br>We stayed in Taupo for a few days but didn't do a lot. Along the lakeshore is an unusual game<br>of golf! Basically you have to try and get the ball in the hole but the green is floating ...

... people from the hostels and guest houses rushed down onto the beach to watch it. There was a little confusion with when we were meant to meet the bus to get our bags, caused by the inevitable thing that happens when a group of travellers get together, we all switch off, imagining that someone else will listen and know what's going on. Of course no-one listens, but we got our bags eventually! I said bye to the Magic bus once more, and opted for local transport, I still had a schedule to keep!

... hab ihsm dann erstmal paar nachhilfestunden angeboten :) bin dann wieder zurueck und war erst um 7 zuhause. War mit so ner besoffenen Kuenstlerfrau auf der faeher, die total stoned oder besoffen war. Hat gitarre gespielt, wollte aus dem Boot springen, hat hysterisch angefangen zu lachen und beim anlegen wirfti die einfach ihren korb aus dem boot. naja, abends hab ich mich mit den anderen unterhalten ...

... their holes in the sand, was just too busy so we left after a while and drove to Hahei to stay a night but it was fully booked to we went to Cooks Beach but couldn't get a stay eighter because they were without power and drove finally back again to Whitianga :-( We stayed the night at the YHA Backpacker, had a Pizza @ the Fire Place, where we got twice a wrong bill...what a lucky day! Heute waren wir wieder auswaerts ...

... had a talk to 2 scotish boys and 2 german girls and went to bed around 11.30pm. Next day we decided to do a walk in the bush. We heard about the Kauaeranga valley, best place to have different kind of walks, from 1 hour to 5 hours. After a short look on the map we decided to go for the 3 hours walk because I didn't want to start to high :-) Lucky us, we did the walk together, it wasn't that easy because it rained a day before and the walk was pretty wet and slippery. Our walk ...

... of the gravel road 309. The road was a hill, a very big hill, tomorrow someone will say 'The WORST IN NEW ZEALAND' but today I can confirm my worst by far! I sweated, huffed and puffed, I went in 100yr bursts, there was no space to get off and push. The bends were tight and the drops steep (though mostly crash barriered) Eventually I mad it to the top, few, I had briefly considered that I might not. I then fell down the other side ...

Hi All! Well I'm currently in a small town called Whitianga (pronounced Fitianga- thank you Andy for warning me ahead of time!) It's a lovely, quiet town and I plan on having a relaxing night ahead of me. I'm staying in this awesome hostel, which is very home-y. I think there are only two other people staying here! I had a wonderful few days in ...

... but in a good way). There's a real community feel and there are lots of artists and musicians who live in the area. Basically it's pretty perfect, and as you've probably guessed I've fallen in love with it!! I'm preparing to tear myself away and get back to Auckland to finally catch my flight to Sydney that I've been putting off for three weeks. So until the next time I'm off to have a glass of wine on the veranda and watch the sun go down over paradise...again!!! xx

... with each other. We got some spades and went off to hot water beach. One part of the beach has a hot spring running under it and if you go two hours either side of low tide you can dig a whole and sit in the hot water. we did this, but what the guide book didn;t say was that it gets REALLY hot. The trick is to get close to the hot water then let the tide bring in cool water. If like hours you didn;t get ...