Rotten eggs

Helen: We finally made it out of Auckland!!!!!!!!!! We thought it would be easier to move around once we had our own transport and weren't relying on other people to move their boats...but we seem to have managed to get stuck in the big city for longer than we wanted. Having said that, though, we did manage to do pretty much everything we needed to do in two weeks, which can't be sniffed at.

Now we're in Rotorua - not much to recommend it - lots of tourists and smells of rotten eggs on account of the sulphurous gysers all around. Just been to the museum where they had a v interesting exhibition about the old bath houses that used to be here - people used to come and get 'treated' with hot water, hot air and mud, as well as electrotherapy, until the 1940s (when they really ought to have known better) for just about every imaginable ailment - eczma, obesity, irritability, arthritis. Bonkers. (But, as C pointed out, maybe not that much more bonkers than all those folks out there who believe in homeopathy today...)

We've got our camping gear and our dehydrated food and we're off for a 4 day 'tramp' as the locals call it this afternoon. Wish us luck!

Lots of love
H&C