Happy Easter!!

Sorry I haven't written in ages but I've been so busy with preparing for Easter and the holidays. I've been very busy though so lots to share and many many photos... So Sohail's been here which has been lovely and he enjoyed coming into my school and meeting my class - they liked that Mr Khan was a decent bowler compared to Miss Hughes so we had a good game of cricket! We also went to the planetarium in Cornwall Park near One Tree Hill and learnt all about the sky here and constellations that can be seen at this time of year in New Zealand. The guy showed us how to find south using the Southern Cross (which Sohail and I managed to do in Rotorua) and told us all about the exploration of Mars which was really interesting. For Easter weekend we went down to a surf town called Raglan, stopping off on the way at the Botanical Gardens in Hamilton which were lovely. We went with my teacher friend Libby, who teaches at the same school as me, and her husband. Libby used to live in Raglan and so knows the area well so she was a great tour guide! We went to see the beaches there which are apparently world-famous for surfing. On Easter Sunday we did an Easter Egg Hunt at out hostel and then kayaked across the harbour to see Pancake Rocks. It was fairly calm on the way over but then the tide turned and the wind picked up so it was rather like a log flume, especially for me who was at the front of our double kayak! Safe to say we got absolutely soaked! On Monday we went down to Waitomo Caves and saw the glow worm caves. These are limestone caves where the environment is just right for glow worms which lie on the roof of the caves and emit light from their tails. They were beautiful and when we took the boat ride through the caves it was like looking up to a starry sky at night! (Didn't see the Southern Cross though!) We then went down to Taupo, which is on Lake Taupo and is very beautiful. The town itself isn't very exciting but there are some lovely views and we went out on another kayak to the Maori carvings which were really cool. The weather was gorgeous so we were really lucky. Oh and we also went to the thermal spa there which was very relaxing - the whole area is naturally heated by geothermal energy because of all the volcanic activity around so lots of thermal springs and pools to go and sit in! Mount Doom is also near Taupo (from Lord of the Rings) but we didn't really get close enough for a proper look - you can just about make it out on some of the photos amongst the clouds. Next we went up to Rotorua which is a real thermal hotspot and stinks of rotten eggs (sulphur) because of it! Seriously, the whole town smells but it is home to a Thermal Wonderland which we visited and was pretty cool. We also visited a Maori thermal village where they settled and built homes over the vents to heat their houses - very clever I thought! We saw a Maori performance of singing and dancing and they even did the Haka and got lots of the men and boys involved! Finally we went to the Mount (Mount Manganui) and went for a walk around the base track before heading home. On Friday we went out with Michelle and her friends in Auckland and played mini-golf yesterday which was fun! Overall an action packed week with still another week of holiday left!!