January 24th: The Kiwi Taj Mahal & 443Kms
I discovered, over breakfast at the Waterfront Cafe in Russell, that during the night I had been dinner for a number of small bitey things with huge jaws. We hunted out the chemist to buy a vat of mossie spray.

We drive back down SH1 through Whangerai and through Auckland. We are told that New Zealand has a population of about 4 million. We encountered most of them driving through Auckland on SH1.

South of Auckland the landscape changes. It becomes flatter, more undulating and the dense vegetation gives way to meadows and pasture lands. We passed through Huntly, a coal mining town with a power station that, they boast, is their Taj Mahal.

We leave SH1 for the SH39 and arrive in Waitomo at 7:30pm having left Russell at 11:30am - 443Kms.

January 25th: Waitomo Caves
A bus came to pick us up from the holiday park and took us to a cave in the middle of bushland. We organised to go on the Ruakuri Cave trip - one of the newer tours. The cave entrance led to a large circular walkway that descended down into the depths of the caves.

The rock formations appear clean, fresh and pearly white. Other caves that I have seen have been silty and muddy. The limestone forms in places in sheets. Eventually we came to the glow worm cave. The guide turns out all the lights and the huge cave is lit by these little guys - quite spectacular.

We were underground for about 3.5 hours walking through caverns and crevices. We pop out, blinking, into the daylight and catch the bus back to the Holiday Park. It was lunchtime so we decided even though there was ample more pursuits to do we would move on to Rotorua.

As we wove our way through the meadow lands the landscape became more hilly and peculiar mounds started to appear. These we discovered were the remains of geol thermals 'events'.

We arrive at the Cozy Cottage International Holiday Park in Rotorua. An interesting, if somewhat contradictory name. We sign in and pitch up. En route to the lake, a few minutes walk from the park, we saw bubbling sandy pools and by the shallows of the lake bubbling steamy pool of water. We chat to an american couple and try to put the world to rights....fail and so throw in the towel on the world and the day.

January 26th:
Rotorua geo thermals & Maori encounters
After a lazy morning we set off for the Te Puia a maori settlement and geothermal area in Rotorua. The weather was pretty grim, the first dismal day so far. We stocked the Maui up at the local New World supermarket and had a cup of tea in the geo thermal car park.

We wandered around the multitude of bubbles, gloops and glugs of the thermal area and befriend Jess, a young girl from the Isle of Wight on her travels around New Zealand. We chat about music and spend the day together.

One of the main geysers went off and the jet of water and steam reached about 20 metres. This happens about every 50 minutes. Jess left us to get her bus to Lake Taupo and we carried on and looked around the Maori meeting house and watched some Maori dancing and singing. We hit the gift shop and left with full arms.

At the holiday park we realised we were sunburnt, even though it was drizzly and overcast - fierce sun.

Dowsed in Aloe Vera we left to get the bus to the Mitai Maori evening. The Hangi which is an meal cooked underground had been cooking for about 3.5 hours. We are welcomed and told about Maori traditions and the history of the Mitai tribe. We are taken down to their nearby river and watch the Maori warriors row up the river on their canoe chanting and shouting. We then moved to an enclosure. Here they danced, chanted and explain their language and traditions. We went back to the main tent to eat the hangi meal, which was fantastic. Lots of lamb, chicken, salad, cauliflower with sesame seeds, creamy potatoes and various sauces.

After the meal we had a walk around Rainbow Springs a nature park which lies next to the Mitai Maori settlement. At night time the park is lit so that we can see Kiwi birds, Kea and the other animals they house, whilst we walked around spring pools and waterfalls, all illuminated by the colourful lights.