Hi guys. sorry i haven't posted for a few days. and no photos because there's no USB conection on this computer

I went to waitomo on saturday. the weather hadn't really improved so i decided against doing the Black Water Rafting as the sheer amount of rain that had come down over the last couple of days had made it that bit more dangerous for a big scaredy girl like me. I'm not that disappointed in hindsight as from what i've heard from others i dont think i would have enjoyed it. Instead i went for a walk through the Ruakuri cave, a little side section from the rafting part of the caves which caters for the wimps like myself. it was very impressive actually, and even more so after hearing the efforts people made to lay out the paths and walkways inside. the cave also featured gloworms which when the lights were turned it did make it look like being outside on a starry night. unfortunately none of my photos of them came out. decided to try and cook more food rather than eating out, as most of the hostels have cooking facilities and i feel lazy buying meals or just living on hand-made sandwiches, which i have been doing in New Zealand so far.

we stayed in waitomo on sunday morning and went for a walk in the local countryside. it was really nice and very similar to some of the walks through the Peak District, until all of a sudden in the middle of a normal looking field of cows thre would be a great big wierd tree that i haven't ever seen before. I cant remember if I've said this already but there are some amazing trees in NZ.
In the afternoon we drove down to Taupo, which is a town next to the biggest lake in NZ, and which is predominantly known as a centre for skydiving and various other ridiculous and dangerous activities. got there in the late afternoon and a had a quick walk along the lake side and sat on the beach for a bit. As a lot of the people who i have been traveling on the bus with for the last week, including myself, were going their separate ways on monday. we decided to go out for a few drinks, which turned into a rather long and drunken, but at the same time highly enjoyable evening.

very little sleep, combined with rather a lot of beer, was not the perfect way to start off a day which included a 6 hour bus ride to Wellington, but i managed to get through it some how. I managed to sleep most of the time on the bus but i couldn't stomach any thing to eat. I got into Wellington early than i had imagined and the bus driver very kindly dropped me off right outside the hostel and so i was able to spend most of the late afternoon and this evening wandering around Wellington. I took a cable car into the hills to look over the city and had a walk along the quayside. It seems like quite a nice city and I'm quite sad that i've got to rush straight out of it again tomorrow morning. Hiowever at the same time, apart from the LoTR movie set tours, i'm not sure what else i would have done if i had the extra time.

Going over to the South Island tomorrow. another pre-7 o clock start. it's hard work this travelling lark. I'm sure you're all really sympathetic.

post again soon.

Paul