Waitomo, Roturua, Taupo and Wellington

(Mel) We've spent the last few days travelling from Auckland to Wellington, stopping in some cool places and seeing some pretty amazing things.

My favourite place so far has to be Roturua with all the geothermal activity going on there. It's completely amazing as there are bubbling hot mud pools all over the place with steam streaming out of them. The whole place smells of Sulphur but it didn't bother me as I was bunged up with flu the whole time! We went to see a geyser ''erupt' (with a little help from a guy who turns us at 10.15am every day to put soap powder in it!) and went to an area where you can see about 20 different pools/craters with different mud/water/steam - it was like walking around on Mars or something - a totally surreal other planet type experience - I loved it.

We also went to a Mauri cultural evening in Roturua - which was very touristy but still a good experience. Ate some food that had been cooked underground in the traditional Mauri style and tasted really interesting and smokey and watched a bit of a Mauri performance or the Haka and some other dances and stuff.

In Wellington for the next couple of nights and then onto the South Island.....