September 12 Tauranga - Rotorua

Still jet lagged. Wake up at 5:30am. Early start and head over to Mount Maunganui, just a 15 min drive from the city centre. It's a big hill type thing 232m high. Hike up it, which is pretty impressive so early in the morning. Lots of sheep (of course) and see a very strange thing - shells embedded in the ground several meters above sea level. Not sure why this is. At one point this Mount must have been on the sea floor, but over time it must have been pushed upwards to form the mount? I'm sure my Oxford Brooks professor/doctor friend will be able to tell me the scientific reason.

After our epic walk (yeah right) we go to an outdoor saltwater thermal swimming baths. It is awesome!! The water is 38 degrees and bloody wonderful. It is also, very cheap at $5 (around 2 quid).

After we checked out of our hostel and drive to Rotorua, where we find lots of bubbling mud. It is very cool, however, it also really stinks of rotten eggs. Pong. Rotorua is nicknames 'Sulphur City', it has the most energetic thermal activity in the country, with bubbling mud pools, gurgling hot springs, gushing geysers and evil eggy smells hovering around. Rotorua also has a large Maori population.

Check into our hostel, which is so-so. The showers are located outdoors and it's not exactly warm at night or early in the mornings. Almost like an endurance test. There is also a mad Japanese woman who works or lives here. I accidentially spilt some oil on the kitchen floor. We said we would clean it, but she went mental and told us to leave the room and started a cleaning frenzy. It was very odd behaviour.

Something really cool we manage to do/see - we see Kiwi's!! We visit a Kiwi project that releases Kiwi's into the wild. They are quite a rare bird and there are only around 70,000 in the wild. They are amazingly big birds, about the size of a large chicken. They are also pretty aggressive, which is good since they are rare.

End up going to the pub in the evening and what happens? We get asked for ID!! Net and I are very bemused since the drinking age is 18 and we are nearly a decade older. Feel really embarrassed. Go back to the hostel to get our passports, only because the only reason we went to this pub in the first place is cos we got a free beer voucher from the hostel when we checked in to the hotel. After our free beer we quickly leave.

Another early night. Bed at 9pm.