"My bum is burning!"

To any family/friends who were still wondering where this post was: blame Amy. She was supposed to write it. To any other readers: enjoy.

Our day began with frost in Taupo. It seemed to be much colder in central North Island than anywhere else. That said, it seemed to clear quick - the roads were fine heading north out of the town towards our first stop of the day. Let's face it - most of New Zealand is beautiful, so me saying this drive was gorgeous doesn't actually mean a lot.

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The funny shaped hill, by the way, is Mount Pohaturoa (I think). Geologically, it's a volcanic dome or plug, all that remains of an old volcano. Historically, there is an old pa on the top, a Maori village site. I'll admit I only looked it up because of the weird geology, but I can see why you'd put a pa on it - it looks pretty secure up there.

Amy had a weird reaction to Backstreet Boys coming up on shuffle... But we'll skip over that bit because first stop of the day was Hobbiton.

Well, Matamata, with it's excellent Hobbiton Movie Set. Yes, it's sad. Yes, it's geeky. But I am a massive Tolkien fan and it was something that had to be done. Look, there was a bus called Legolas.

Ahem. So the tour was amazing. Here, have some photos.

I won a leaf from Bilbo's tree. Amy and Claire filched some fallen ones. Thieveses.

Another member of our tour group landed in a heap trying to recreate that iconic "I'm going on an adventure!" leap over the fence.

And then we got a free pint in the Green Dragon. Pretty good, that cider, actually.

Altogether now...

You can search far and wide.

Basically, Hobbiton was amazing.

After that, another scenic drive through the Waikato countryside to the little town of Rotorua, famous for its geothermal features. A quick stop at the hostel to dump bags and then on to Te Puia.

Here we hit a snag, because I left my camera at the hostel and as yet I still don't have any photos from Claire or Amy. Let's have a go though.

Te Puia takes in a geothermal area on the outskirts of Rotorua and a Maori cultural centre including the National Carving and Weaving Schools. Our experience there began with a walking tour of some of the main sights, including Pohutu Geyser and the Kiwi House. The geyser was impressive, as were the bubbling hot pools of mud. Our guide was most informative and as with many of the guides was a member of Te Awara, the group of tribes who are traditional owners of the site.

Following our little tour, we stuck around for our evening Maori cultural experience, Te Po. This began with a hongi, the traditional welcome between people. Claire has some excellent photos of this, somewhere.

This was followed by a performance of poi (a dance), haka (a war dance) and Maori song. Brilliant stuff but once again I have no photos.

Then it was time for tea, with delicious food cooked in the Maori hāngi style. This involves putting stones in a pit, heating them, placing the food on top (wrapped) and then burying the whole lot for a few hours. Some really delicious dishes and the staff kindly found us to let us know which dishes had nuts in, since Claire's allergic.

Much delicious nomming followed. I tried mussels and crayfish for the first time and discovered they're yummy.

Our evening ended with a trip on the waka (read: giant golf buggy) back down to the geysers. Hot chocolate and a seat on hot rocks while our evening guide told us stories about both the area and his experience of growing up around the valley were a brilliant end to the day.

The highlight, though, might just have been Amy jumping up in a quiet moment yelling, "My bum is burning!"

"English speaking people crouch down so the others copy you"

Long blog title is long.

The day began with a trip to a shop to finally buy some jade, given that we'd been saying for most of the trip that we wanted some. Jade was bought. I acquired a manaia, which is a little protective spirit type thing. He's called Nessie because it looks a bit like a sea monster.

Then we had a very short trip down to Lake Rotorua which stunk of eggs courtesy of it being a volcanic lake. There was also a posing seagull.

Then came the drive to Waitomo. The sat-nav insisted on sending us down the back roads again, but we'd got used to it by that point.

Waitomo was damp. First up we headed to Ruakuri Cave. 2 hour walking tour ensued, which took in some amazing formations and awesome little glowworms. I have no good pics of the glowworms, but here's some half-decent photos of fun geology.

At one point Meg, our guide, turned all the lights out and we went through the passage conga style. Amy and Claire walked into a post. The ceiling was covered in glowworms and they were reflected in the river below the path. Actually, the Maori name for glowworms means something like stars reflected in water.

After Ruakuri, we headed down to the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. This started with a little walk around with an excellent guide (who's name, unfortunately, I didn't catch). At one point, seeing that a lot of the group weren't following her instructions to be able to see the glowworms, she loudly announced "English speaking people, crouch down so the others copy you." It made us smile.

Walking section over, we headed down to a little jetty on the Waitomo River within the cave and took a little boat ride into the dark. This was amazing. The ceiling was absolutely covered in glowworms, the only light in the cave. The guide steered the boat using cables strung across the cave and finally, after going round in circles straining our necks to gawp at the pretties, we headed out along the river to another jetty. All the awesome.

And then came the drive to Auckland. Which was fine until we got to Auckland proper and the sat-nav was incredibly unhelpful. We had to drive round in circles looking for the hostel for ages. Not fun. We do not like driving in Auckland.

"Unless one of you particularly wants to get into bed with me..."

Two part booking/planning session today. Looks like we've got the car hire booked, which also covers the ferry crossing between North and South Island. Hurray! Claire decided we need a sat-nav. Anyone would think she didn't trust my navigation skills...

On the subject of navigation, my New Zealand road atlas has also arrived, so obviously instead of helping Claire and Amy to find suitable hostels, I spent the first part of the booking session sticking tabs in the atlas at all the pages we could possibly need. I like maps - it had to be done.

In the later booking session, we got a few more hostels booked, plus "The Trilogy Experience" - which basically means we get to go to Hobbiton, the Maori experience of Te Puia and Te Po and the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. So now we've got most of the major expensive things booked. All the fun.

We seem to have mastered the art of finding hostels with 3 bed rooms so we can get a room to ourselves. Hurray. Of course, this might still mean bunk beds, sofa beds and possible sharing of double beds, but who cares? Extra privacy!

Tomorrow, we're heading up to Whitby to test our navigating skills. Or rather, how well I can explain to Claire which way she needs to go. Should be interesting. We also want to find a "Welcome to Whitby" type sign so we can grab a photo of it. There's a Whitby just outside Wellington in New Zealand and well, it kind of has to be done.

And of course, I only remember as I'm about to post this that Beak the mascot failed to make an appearance. Oh dear. She'll just have to come to Whitby with us tomorrow.