I love the smell of geothermal activity in the morning

Farting mud poop. I mean bubbling mud pool.
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Rotorua, Waikite, Wai-O-Tapu, Taupo, Tongariro

Now we realize what all those volcanoes in Auckland were about! If you didn't already know, NZ straddles two tectonic plates, which move against each other and make holes which allow lots of hot, smelly stuff to rise to the surface. Sometimes this means enormous, explosive volcanoes. Other times, it means geysers, bubbling mud pools, beautiful mineral-colored natural wonders, and relaxing mineral hot springs for swimming. In Rotorua, this also means an overpowering sulfur smell in the air.

ZORB! Like a hamster ball, but for people
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There is nothing nicer than sitting in a hot pool right before bed, except maybe sitting in a hot pool right when you wake up. Aside from our beautifully thermally-landscaped campsite, there was a multitude of bizarre, colourful, and sometimes frightening natural wonders to see. Notable on the "frightening" list was the LOTR doom death mountain (or whatever it's called) and the boiling rivers (not a lot of fish swimming there). The big mountains were a bit south of Lake Taupo (actually, a huge caldera itself and result of Earth's largest volcanic eruption): Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro. We opted not to do the full day hike (the popular Tongariro Crossing) and instead did a few short walks around the area, a smart move considering we don't own rain gear, wind gear, or - in Jenny's case - closed-toed shoes. As we drove away at midday, we were pleased with our decision as the mountains were still hiding in dark clouds.

Mousehead with more thermal activity. Stinky Mousehead!
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Not much left to talk about here- check out the pictures, they say it all -- or they would have, if this weren't the first time on our whole trip that our camera battery died. (Shoutout to the lady who let us use her camera with our memory card- Mousehead appreciates it.)

Wellington Part 1

It's almost too quick to mention (and it'll get it's own blog entry upon return), but here goes:

We met up and stayed with James and Yuka of Penang, Malaysia history, as well as a couple more of Ben's old mates from Scots College (high school). We wandered around downtown, texted like we were locals, hung out at the coolest library since Cornell (it's like a Borders!), enjoyed an art gallery full of NZ's up-and-coming artists' wacky work, had a few drinks on the waterfront, jumped around a supercool playground in the dark, and caught the Bluebridge ferry across to the South Island. We'll return windy Welly. You are cool. On to the next land mass of our journey!