Rotorua

We're back in Rotorua at the moment. We were here over Christmas and we like it even more this time around, although the place still smells like rotten eggs! Its in a real geothermal area and I don't know if I could ever get used to seeing steam coming our of the ground and mud bubbling away in the parks!

We're staying in a great hostel called Treks and just chilling out - no major plans to see or do anything here which is great! However it's still nice to get out and about so we've been to see the Blue & Green lakes which were really amazing and gone on some nice walks through a giant Redwood forest which was cool.

The weather is getting much colder now. Its officially winter and some parts of the South Island have been snowed in without electricity for the past 2 weeks. We really can't understand why 99% of the buildings don't have central heating and just rely on log fires for heating.

I'm making sure I'm seeing all the World Cup football I can though. The live matches are on way too late, but I can usually catch the replays the next evening. My head would be wrecked if I couldn't see the World Cup!