Kids and Kiwis

We spent 2 nights in Hamilton with some of Flo's family friends and their 3 kids which was pretty nice - especially the nice homecooked meals! They had a cat with a funny squashed face who reminded us of Helen. We went to the Hamilton Gardens one day which has loads of different types of gardens like Chinese, Japanese, American modern, English etc. and that was quite nice. In the evening of our last night, we had a 'weird competition' where everyone had to make themselves look as weird as possible. Obviously minimum effort required from us both...

The next morning we were supposed to get a bus to Rotorua but they messed up my booking and so we had to wait for ages for the next one. nightmare. But we finally got there and were greeted by a nice whiff of rotten egg smell. mmmmm. Wasn't quite sure if it was Flo or the sulphur...very much debatable. Anyway we got a bus to Te Puia to look at the geysers, mud pools and hot springs - I thought there were incredible! The groups of Chinese tourists there added to the fun factor. A LOT. There was also a Kiwi house which you could go into full of people oohing and ahhing but you literally couldn't see anything because it was so dark. Everyone went mental when they saw a little bit of a beak of one of the kiwis and kept pointing and making amazed faces, it was weird. But we did actually see one in the end when we went in again. wahey. I learnt loads of fun facts about them like did you know that kiwis are the only birds that have both working ovaries? WOW. fun fact. Did you know that females weigh 2.5-3kg whereas males weigh 2-2.5 kg? MENTAL. After that excitement we went back to some more of Flo's family friends flat and went in their hot tub! fun. Completely smelt of rotten egg afterwards. Yum.

The next morning we went to the Skyline to go on the Luges. We got a gondola up to the top of the hill and there were 3 tracks - scenic, intermediate and advanced. We sped through them all, nearly running over many little children on the way and it was so much fun. You could go so fast as well it was great. We got to wear gorgeous helmets and everything. FIT.

That afternoon, we got a bus to Taupo with the hopes of doing to Tongariro Crossing - apparently the best one day walk in NZ, but the weather was really bad so they cancelled all trips for the next few days. Gutted. We stayed 2 nights and went to the Taupo thermal pools with some nice Irish girls we met, went rockclimbing with a funny instructor who smelt really bad and we saw The Boat that Rocked one evening - so good.

Seriously hoping the weather gets better soon. Pretty fun few days though.