Nearing the end of NZ

Description of NZ pictures: Pic 1 (above) is the average New Zealand landscape. Pic 2 is a bubbling hot mud pool (see steam).... simply wild to see. Pic 3 is Cathedral Cove at low tide... at high tide you can't pass through the opening without getting wet. Pic 4 is one of many hot water pools we saw while visiting a geothermal park in Rotorua. The colour on the outside is different minerals that come up from the earth. Unreal to see as well!!! Pic 5 is a geyser which spouts hot water out every 24 hours. Pic 6 is a train tour we took along a hillside near Mercury Bay.

The weather has been much cooler even for the locals here - single digit highs on some days. We have done lots of driving - the countryside is beautiful. We went to Cathedral Cove - if any of you have watched the Chronicles of Narnia, the opening scene is shot here. You will all be shocked to hear in the Watimo Caves that Amanda and I went rappelling, black water rafting, viewed glow worms, and then rock climbed our way out. It was exhausting, but amazing. It was even more amazing that Amanda had to step off a ledge 30 metres in the air (heights are not Amanda's forte) and just hang there. We also stopped in at Rotorua - a hotbed of geothermal activity - mud boils out of the earth, steams shoots out of the earth, various minerals including sulphur oozes out of the earth. Needless to say the entire area smelled like rotten eggs. We stayed at a hostel in Rotorua that had a hot spa. Water was being pumped directly from 43 metres under us, it was extremely hot - it can get as hot as 90 degrees Celsius so we were told... they have to cool it down with cold water so you can actually sit in it. We are in Auckland today in the middle of a "truckies" protest. 2,000 trucks are causing chaos in the downtown core (where we are now) and on the major highways.

We hope all is well back home and we'll update the blog with pictures of our excursions when we get to Australia. Happy camping for the B's this weekend!!!

We just can't get over how cool all the boiling earth was check out the video footage...

Lady Knox Gyser, Wia Ta Pu New Zealand

Boiling Water from the Earth: Rotorua, New Zealand

Boiling Mud Pond: Rotorua, New Zealand