Quality Resort Heritage In Rotorua

... lovely track the next day, Joss limping along with his dodgy old ski knee injury, but battered and bruised it was still worth it. Wasn't it Joss?
We headed to Marlbourough after that and explored the Sound (Nelson scallops on our own private beach washed down with a bottle of the local chilled sauvignon blanc...) then headed into wine country itself and had a great day exploring the Marlborough wineries from our hired bikes. AMAZING! Totally accesible and also free ...

... went to the Polynesian Spa and relaxed in the thermal mineral pools, which are like lovely hot baths! Several of them even overlook the lake. They were all outdoors, so it was a quick run between pools! After a few hours soak and feeling nicely refreshed, we headed back to the van and on the road.

... hunky Maori dude (but I could have beaten him up if I had to). Before letting us into their village they did the haka which was amazing and the facial expressions during it are really scary involving lots of screeching and tongue wiggling. Niamh was sad she couldn't join in all the dancing.

We then got to see a traditional village and get an insight into how the Maori people would have lived. We also learned ...

... geyser which then erupted maybe 5 metres in the air but to be honest the one in Lanzarote is more dramatic. Jack not impressed at the 30 dollar entrance fee for this natural wonder, as they only needed 30 cents worth of detergent! but the rest of the park was much better, lots of geo-thermal attractions with bubbling mud pools, steaming lakes, bright greeen lakes etc etc, so all in all worth going to. Later on, as we ...

... bumps and scrapes. Once we reached the waterfalls we had to put our practice into action and position ourselves backwards at the edge of the waterfall and jump trying to land in our tube before our guide counted to 3 and pushed us - and she counted really fast so it was a race against time. We all made each waterfall jump and landed successfully, although Zoe lost her helmet on one jump but managed to recover it rather quickly. In all the trip was good fun, it was ...

... made it all seem a bit intimidating at first - visions of being flung out of the boat and getting my foot trapped in a rock as the rapids roared around my head came to mind - but it actually wasn't too scary and was really exhilarating - I'd definitely recommend it and do it again if I got the chance. Also when Stu saw the photos he claims me and Flooze spent the whole time in the safety 'tucked-in' position  (which I dispute of course) but maybe I'd be a little braver and ...

... crew lived in Hamilton during this portion of filming and never came into town. Our tour guide and our bus driver both come from Matamata and said that they knew there was filming going on somewhere around, but didn't know where. It was not until the first scenes of the movie when they show a mountain range behind the actors that they realized what angle it was filmed in and it eventually all came out. Some people warned us that the tour is not so ...

... they filmed the scenes for hobbiton in lord of the rings. the hobbit holes were actually built on a private sheep farm...most of the holes were taken down, but it's still easy to imagine how this little peice of farmland could have been transformed into a bustling town full of hobbits! on my last day, i went to waitomo to check out the glow worm caves. they are supposed to be a big deal...but they're just caves...with worms...that glow....

... outside the town (affording a reasonable, but somewhat disappointing view down to the town) and they have a number of luge tracks running back down the hill. We had a couple of runs down the hill, the local kids were flying down (wrecklessly in my geriatric opinion). Ellie loved it and is considering becoming a professional Lugist. Just time for a quick visit to the polynesian spa for a soak in some (dilute, yet hot) sulphuric ...

... and emptied ours and then drove the rest of the way to lake Rotoiti. We are staying in a time share resort here in a very nice villa on the lake front. Hopefully the weather will clear up so we can go out on the lake in a paddle boat of row boat or go zorbing or go to the hot springs...or do anything really. Much regards Sabine Ng