The middle of the North Island... Lake Taupo!

Now on our way to the snow we stopped off in Lake Taupo for a go at jumping out of a plane.... oh yes you read correctly now came the time for me to finally do something i have only dreamt of for years.... sky diving!!!! Yeeha!!! The delightful Kiwi weather did delay us slightly though so we had to bide some time and have a go at 'earning our keep' for a wee while... (see photo to the right for how we did this! :)

To be continued....

Rotorua

Our road trip around New Zealand begun and we purchased an old Toyota to get us around... hopefully! :) After buying our little beauty we headed south a little, to Rotorua (a.k.a 'the smelly town') named so due to the rather potent smell of Sulphur no matter where you're standing! Here, we of course had to see what all the fuss was about, and where exactly this 'delightful' smell was coming from, so we went out to Whakarewa Thermal Village where we winessed spurting geysers, steaming hot springs and expolding mud pools which was all very exciting! We also learnt how the Maori people live amongst the geothermal activity and even got a taster of some traditional Maori dance and music which was interesting, if not a little scarey i hasten to add!

Welcome to the Kiwi country.... New Zealand!

Next stop after Fiji, the country with a population of SHEEP that is 15 times the population of people.... 60 million sheep and only 4 million people...!
Something else I've certainly come to realise about New Zealand since arriving here, is that if you fancy a go at something unconventional, mildly life-threatening, and maybe a little crazy then this is the place to be...! Take for instance, throwing yourself down a hill in a giant inflatable ball, oh and why not throw in a load of water.... just for good measure! This being what is known as Zorbing, my first experience in New Zealand! No wonder the country has such a small number of people - they've probably killed off half their population trying out the next 'most extreme sport'...! The nutters! :)