Did we do it?
In a word ...........No... (put on your best Zumerset accent)
Unfortunately it was raining and was due to for the next few days so the skydives were all on hold. One of us was glad, one of us was sad ... I'll let you guess which!
So we headed on in the rain to Rotorua.
We enjoyed the experience of the Maori cultural show and the geysers in Rotorua but were not so impressed with the smell. The whole town smells of sulphur, just like rotten eggs.


Down at Wai-o-tapu the mineral pools and hot springs were pretty amazing. The colours of the different minerals that are brought up from the ground are really vivid and quite different from anything we had seen before. Its a little like what you might expect of walking on the moon with all the craters.

We felt a little cheated by the main geyser as it was manually activated by half a kilo of washing powder. Apparently the story goes that the prisoners chopping trees in the area used to wash their clothes in the hot springs and the soap would activate the geysers shooting the clothes sky high. It was very interesting and informative but not as "natural" as we had expected.

Volcanoes in the sea
Still on the theme of eruptions we headed along the fault-line to Whakatane where we took a trip to the active volcanoe island known as White Island. The journey out on the boat took a couple of gut wrenching hours. The skipper even wondered whether the trip should have gone ahead in the first place. Nat and I were one of the very few who weren't sick! It was certainly a baptism of fire for Nat who's not particularly fond of boats!
On the island we donned gas masks to help prevent irritaion of the throat from all the sulphur fumes. The guides took us on a tour of the island showing us lots of interesting volcanic evidence. It was then that he told us that the volcanoe is made of compacted ash, is extremely pourous and very fragile. If you stomp your feet you can hear and feel the vibrations go through the ground. Apparently the landscpe changes frequently and the guides are always noticing new changes. There was a factory which had been wipped out by a landslide. Also there was scarely a lake which was around 50-60 degC and extremely acidic (around PH 1 !!!).



On our journey we also expereinced a new and tasty phenomena of the New Zealand cookie .... mmmmmm so tasty ... and when they say choc chip they mean choc chip or more like choc chunk!!!! How exciting!
Oh and the trip back was a lot smoother because we had the wind behind us. It was still a little unnerving to look out the window and see the sky, then the sea, then the horizon, then the sea then the sky ........... ooooooooh!